#i consider this good practice for being able to craft better scenes in the future

[just-a-carrot]

new terrifying dd2 discovery: genzou can get possessed when fighting dragons and attack iggy???? i was simultaneously terrified yet also moved and inspired by the tragic angsty possibilities this instills in my brain...

(...also genzou looks so cute and small picked up by the dragon ldkjfalsdkfa)

cw for some bright lights, especially when the dragon breathes fire:

also yes i have finally upgraded to installing obs so i can actually get good footage rather than recording crappy tv shots on my phone LOL i may or may not be in the processing of collecting lots of footage so i can make a romantically tragic extremely cringey music video.................... don't think less of me lakdjflasdk (tho it'll take a while because i'll need to beat the game to get the final scenes and then start NG+ to get scenes i missed and i already know the ending is going to break me)

[chaozsilhouette]

A Revealing Performance

My rendition for the Shadow Play in @winterpower98's Swap Au.

It was supposed to be a simple thing, then it sort of spiraled into this whole deal. For the effects of the Shadow Lantern, I drew some inspiration from her Cursed Au as I never thought simply using her friends was cruel enough for the Monkey Tyrant.

It serves to show just how far Macaque has grown, but also to highlight just how monstrous he was.

_____________________________

Mei refrained from downing her bubble tea as she waited for the play to start. It had been a rough couple of weeks with Spider Queen and that creepy girl. And failing to find where Xiaotian had run off to after the misunderstanding. When Macaque sent her tickets to the local theatre, she was ashamed to think it was a trap.

Pigsy and Sandy were right. After everything that happened, she needed some serious me time. She had been too stressed.

Besides, everyone knew Macaque was a total theatre nerd. Few people knew that the star puppeteer was actually the Six-Eared Macaque himself. He would totally send her tickets from his stomping grounds as a way to unwind.

It was a shame that Tang couldn’t join them. Apparently, he finally managed to schedule a meeting with the Celestial Realm and was Taking the demon brothers to figure out a new way of sealing the Monkey Tyrant. It was also his chance to explain their little break-in during New Years. He encouraged her to have fun and if it was good, he’d join them for the next showing.

So here they were waiting for the performance to start. Although she wondered what the fake mayor was doing here. They hadn't seen him since he gave her the skeleton key. Still wasn't sure why he had it or why he gave it to her? Supposedly she was only supposed to have it for a day, but he never stopped by to pick it up.

_____________________________

Sun Wukong was a monkey of many talents, but even he had to admit Macaque was a far better storyteller and his mastery of shadows was sheer perfection. But that just made this plan all the more perfect. What better way to teach his wayward beloved’s little flower a lesson than through a trusted medium.

Obtaining a spot in the local theatre was child’s play, a little magic and they were all but begging him to take center stage. Apparently, they had been scrambling to find a new performer after their star puppeteer had to leave for a family emergency (three guesses as to who that was). And with a little glamor, a set of tickets was left at the little flower's doorstep. As far as she knew, Macaque was proud of her progress and believed she had deserved a reward for all her hard work. She was so desperate for something to go right she hardly questioned how her mentor, who was in parts unknown, managed to secure tickets for a new performer.

In his personal dressing room, Wukong delicately touched up his human disguise. Even if he was going to be hidden in his hanfu and cloak, it wouldn’t do to spoil the surprise. Applying his eye shadow with artful flair, the Monkey King took time to appreciate just how handsome he truly was no matter what form he took. Honestly, who would have thought such perfection existed?

A pulse of dark magic drew his attention to his latest partner in crime.

The Shadow Lantern gently floated before him. Its dark magic practically purring at the thought of being used. Wukong could almost laugh at his beloved’s foolishness. He was there when his darling created the lantern, when he infused his own shadows into its very foundation. Did he honestly think such a masterpiece would tolerate being left to collect dust in a cave?

Normally a magical artifact would never consider turning on its master, but after centuries of abandonment, all Wukong had to do was whisper his intentions to return Macaque to his former self to secure its loyalty. The second he first made contact, he could sense a twisted hunger writhing within and with each performance granting it the chance to feed on the life essence of the viewers…. hehe, he almost couldn’t contain himself.

Looking up at the clock, he saw it was just about time for his next performance. His clones had reported the girl’s presence along with the pig and the water demon. Strangely the one with glasses and the little matchstick was absent. No matter, he could make do with two hostages just fine.

After all, the show must go on.

_____________________________

The overhead lights dimmed, signaling the start of the play. Smoke slowly poured from beneath the floorboards, generating an air of mystery. In a flash of golden light, a tall man wearing a beautiful cloak manifested on center stage. The crowd silenced themselves at the display.

“Welcome viewers to a performance you shall never forget!” From the folds of his sleeves, an exquisite lantern floated in front of him. A mesmerizing yet familiar purple glow emanating from the center.

“Our tale tonight is one of love, companionship, and how even the strongest of bonds can be severed through the trickery of the wicked.”

In the background, the shadows twisted and grew in the lantern’s light. Carefully they formed a beautiful scene of a mountain covered in flowers and trees. Attention was gradually guided to the top, where a round stone basked in the sun.

“It all began with the birth of a King.”

The round stone broke, revealing a figure that resembled a monkey. But no, this was a monkey demon, a monkie if you would. The King journeyed down the mountain until he found a tribe of normal monkeys. The group frolicked for a while as the King established himself as the undisputed ruler of the tribe.

A large figure with an ax appeared. The monster brought down his ax upon a small collection of monkeys only to be stopped at the last second by the King. The King used his superior strength to steal the demon’s ax and used it to decapitate the intruder in a single stroke. The monkeys jumped around the King and praised his strength, but the King did not appear satisfied.

“The young King was born with great power and strength, but he sought out more to protect his people.”

The King crafted a raft and set out on a dangerous sea. The King was shown to face off against mountain gods, human warriors, and demonic sorcerers always to reign victorious but never satisfied.

“In his travels, he learned much and faced many enemies, in time his efforts were handsomely rewarded.”

The King climbed a fleet of stairs carved into a mountain to reach a humble monastery. At the top, a stern human stood, but behind him was another monkie. This one however possessed six ears.

“His quest for power led him to a Warrior of potential equaling his own. At first, neither was sure how to react to their mirror, but they quickly forged a comradery that took them far.”

The two monkies trained together, mastering new powers as they sparred.

“Their time together increased their power exponentially and as they grew stronger their feelings blossomed into something beautiful.”

The two were on a cliff overlooking the stars, slowly leaning closer to one another. Eventually, the two faced their opposite and leaned in close.

“Their fates had become intertwined. Their power was unmatched. It was then the King realized what he had been searching for all this time.”

The two shadows merged together in a complex dance until they separated into two beings once again, but not as they began. The two monkeys were now garbed in elaborate, yet practical armor and silks. The King wielded a staff and the Warrior took up a spear.

“Slowly their strength grew to where nothing could challenge them, whether in the Celestial Realm or on Earth.”

The King and Warrior were shown battling heavenly armies and powerful demons with confident smirks. Each battle resoundingly won through their combination of speed, strength, and cunning.

“But it was not enough. The King wished to ensure that he and the Warrior would be able to fight together forever and sought the power and respect needed to secure their future.”

The King took to the Heavens, where he stood before an Emperor in the most extravagant outfit, surrounded by massive guards in magical armor. The Emperor was clearly afraid as the King effortlessly toppled one guard after another, slowly approaching the throne at a steady pace.

“The King’s noble actions were viewed negatively by those who feared his ever-growing power. Eventually, a prison was crafted that could restrain the King, one that not even his beloved Warrior could destroy.”

Just before the King’s latest attack could reach the Emperor, chains wrapped around his limbs and dragged him down to Earth. With a quick flex, the chains shattered, but the King was doomed as a mountain landed on him with a seal placed at the top. The Warrior tried to pry off the seal or find some way to weaken the mountain, his acts growing more desperate with time, yet nothing worked.

“Cruelly, the King was forced to wait until he could be freed, forced to watch his precious Warrior defend their Kingdom on his own.”

With a heavy expression, the Warrior abandoned his efforts to return to the original mountain as dozens of terrifying figures surrounded the monkey inhabitants.

“Centuries passed and their love still burned strong. Soon their patience was rewarded, the King was freed but he was soon trapped in a new prison.”

A monk approached the mountain and removed the seal. The King swiftly destroyed the mountain. The monk humbly bowed to the King and offered fresh clothing and a fillet. The King garbed himself in the gifts only to collapse in agony when the monk prayed.

“Enraged the King played along until the time was right. The King and the Warrior reunited in secret and crafted a plan that would allow them to take their revenge on those that dared to separate them.”

The two monkies hugged and nuzzled each other in appreciation. A quick conversation later, the Warrior changed to resemble the King and joined the monk as the King headed into unknown lands.

“Decades later the King was ready to retrieve his love, confident in his regained strength. But when he arrived the Warrior had changed. It was as if the warrior had lost a crucial part of himself. The Warrior tried to dissuade the King from killing the monk and his companions. He even tried to convince him to give up his rage at the Celestial Realm, believing the war that would ensue wasn't worth it.”

The disguised Warrior was traveling with four colorful characters. The King dropped from the sky in front of the group, a massive crater forming around him. The Warrior regained his true form, but instead of returning to his rightful place, he blocked the King’s view of the monk.

“The King could not believe his ears. This could not be his Warrior. His love always understood his goals and knew why heaven had to pay. The King knew this change was the monk’s fault. The King moved to silence the deceiver in one quick strike only to find it blocked by the Warrior.”

The King and Warrior exchanged blows that tore mountains asunder, split the heavens, and burned down forests. The other demons following the monk tried to aid the warrior, but nothing they did seemed to slow down the King, if anything their attacks only served to further enrage him.

“The two clashed until the Warrior fled with the jailers. Time and time again they clashed, but never could the King reach the Warrior he held in his heart.”

The group fled from the battle, but time and time again the King tracked them down. The locations may have changed, but the carnage after each battle remained as world-shattering as the first. In the end, the Group managed to truly escape, and the Warrior vanished into the shadows he wielded, leaving the King alone with nothing but his memories.

“Even now the King yearns for the companionship of his beloved Warrior, knowing that at his core the Warrior craves the same.”

With the final line sending shivers down the spines of the viewers, the puppeteer vanished in a flash of light.

_____________________________

As Mei waited for her family to walk out, she couldn’t help but think about the play. It almost sounded like they were telling the tale of the Monkey King. But that was ridiculous. No one knew the Monkey King’s origins aside from minor details from the Journey to the West. Besides the narrator seemed to view the Monkey Tryant as a hero and victim. Clearly, that guy needed a reality check.

“Hello, young one.” Nearly choking on the remainder of her tea, Mei turned to see the puppeteer standing behind her with a knowing smile.

His cloak shrouding the top of his face in shadow. For a second, Mei envisioned her father Macaque. He would adore that look. Actually, didn’t she see a similar outfit in his closet on Flower Fruit Mountain? Doesn’t he wear that outfit when he’s hosting a shadow play?

Wait. How did he sneak up on her like that? Was she that out of it?

How long has she been quiet? Crap! Say something! “Oh. Ah-hello. C-can I help you with something?”

“I was about to ask the same. You do know the theatre is going to close soon right?”

“What?” Mei grabbed her phone. The digital clock flashed that it was past nine. That couldn’t be right. That meant she had been waiting for nearly an hour. But where were the others? Surely, they wouldn’t have left without telling her. Were they in trouble?

“Is everything alright?”

“Ah- yeah, everything’s fine.” It’s cool. It’s cool. She could handle this. She just needed to stay calm. “No need to worry about me. I just ah-I have a few questions about your play.”

“Yes.”

“How did you could up with the concept? I mean, no offense, but your premise could be taken the wrong way.” Maybe it was the panic over where her family had disappeared to, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being sized up.

“Hm. Have you ever heard the expression ‘History is written by the winners’?”

“Yes. It’s pretty common.” Like one of the most used sayings in the world.

“The tale was designed to show that love is one of the most cherished feelings of all and that in order to protect it, one must be willing to do anything to keep their loved ones safe. The King only wished to keep his beloved by his side, but the Warrior was misled and forced to battle against his love. That story may belong to only two, but similar tales can be experienced in anyone’s life. Tell me, can you think of a time you fought with those you cared about due to a misunderstanding?”

Without even considering it, horrible memories resurfaced. Mei arguing with MK as she tried to stop him from leaving with the newly released Monkey King. Mei forced to battle Red Son as his mind was slowly consumed by the True Fire of Samadhi. Tang lying to them about his true identity. Macaque leaving when they needed him most without saying why.

“I see you can.” The puppeteer gently guided her back into the main hall, where she took a seat on an empty bench.

“It’s nothing. I just-” She honestly didn’t know why she was pouring out her heart to stranger. Maybe she really was that exhausted. “-there’s so much going on and I’m supposed to be strong no matter what. But sometimes it hurts, just thinking about all my mistakes. Sometimes I wonder if I truly am strong. What if bringing me into this was a mistake?”

“What if it was?” That voice!

Mei turned to see Macaque garbed in a strange outfit, one that honestly reminded her of the Monkey King’s. She was confused. She had never seen him wear anything like that, he looked like the Monkey King’s twisted shadow.

And that expression! Her father Macaque had never made that face before. It looked as though he was reveling in her suffering.

“What’s the matter, little jade? Don’t worry, I won’t leave you alone.” He extended a hand slowly with the intent to cradle her face. A normal gesture he would use to comfort her, but her every instinct was screaming at her to get away.

Mei jumped to her feet and pulled out her spear, aiming it right between the imposter’s eyes. “Enough games!”

Macaque stared at the spear for a second, his fiendish expression only growing more vicious. He threw his head back with a full-bodied laugh, showing how little he thought of her threat. “Ha. Ha. Ha.”

In a flash of light, the Monkey Tyrant was standing before her, still wearing his puppeteer disguise. “Wow. About time. For a while, I was wondering if you’d ever figure out it was me.” His red and gold eyes carefully roved over her body, taking in every shake and fearful twitch. “Put down the spear, kid. We both know you’re not nearly good enough to scratch me with such a pitiful copy of the Dragon Blade.”

That may have been true, but she’d sooner make out with DBP in full view of Queen Iron Fan than leave herself completely open before this tyrant. “So the play was from your perspective. I always figured you were delusional, but this is a new low. Where is my family?” She all but growled, unknowingly her canines had slightly elongated in response to her rage.

“They never left. I’m surprised you didn’t recognize this.” The Monkey King took out the lantern, once more bathing the room in that familiar glow.

“What’s the big deal about a lantern?”

The stone monkie found her ignorance all the more entertaining. To think he hadn’t warned her of his own past.

“The big deal is that my dear warrior crafted this lantern long ago. It was his finest work and like everything he made it has multiple uses.” With a simple hand gesture, the silhouettes of Pigsy and Sandy appeared on the walls. “The Shadow Lantern can do more than enhance one’s skills in shadow magic, it can trap the bodies and souls of its targets. So long as the targets are trapped, the lantern can steal the shadows of its victims so its master can use them as a personal army until there is nothing left.”

“You expect me to believe Macaque made something so disgusting?” Even as Mei said it, she couldn’t help but recognize how similar the lantern’s magic was to her teacher’s. It was cool and soothing, but on the edge, there was an unmistakable edge of malice. “Even if he did, I doubt he made it without you whispering in his ears.”

“Oh child, you have no idea how many secrets he keeps from you. Let me share one with you.” The lantern grew brighter, and the silhouettes of her family members gained more substance as they peeled away from the walls.

Mei adjusted herself so all opponents were in her sight, but nothing could stop the sweat collecting on her forehead.

She sensed something powerful appear behind her. Jumping out of the way as a spear nearly severed her arm. She faced her new opponent. Only to almost drop her weapon.

Standing before her was another copy of Macaque only this one was even more disturbing. Its eyes burned with purple light, the shadows loving curled around it, but worst of all was the sneer filled with razor-tipped teeth.

“Did you honestly think my love was always so nice?”

[aelaer]

Compare/contrast Benedict Cumberbatch’s portrayal of Sherlock & Strange?

Ah ha ha anon, you understand my propensity to write essays regarding basically, uh, anything that interests me. And character analysis for my favorite characters is definitely one of those things I can ramble about.

I’m going to assume you specifically want me to compare the two character portrayals with each other as opposed to the source material, so that’s what I’m going to do. This write up assumes all four seasons of Sherlock and all MCU films with Stephen in them as canon.

This topic is something I especially considered when writing the both of them in a crossover as they had to be two distinct souls despite their similarities, beyond their abilities. The two characters are very similar to the point that some folks have difficulty in distinguishing the both of them as separate characters. I saw this a bit when Doctor Strange was first released. Some writers from the Sherlock fandom tried their hand at writing him, and there was a lot of Sherlock bleeding through in a handful of the attempts I read. It wasn’t until I was head-deep in the MCU that I really noticed this myself, which goes to show just how similar they can be.

The similarities are easy: both very intelligent, masters in their chosen fields, arrogant, not always personable, are vain when they’re in a good headspace, and went through large moments of growth that reshaped some of their personality to overall make them better human beings.

It’s the differences that may be harder to figure out, and these differences also vary depending on what point of time in canon you’re looking at the character as they both went through life-changing events. Still, there are some core personality points that remain:

Stephen’s primary drive for knowledge is to achieve a goal. Sherlock’s primary drive for knowledge is for the sake of knowledge. While there is definitely some overlap (such as Stephen’s library of music release albums and dates, and Sherlock’s research into solving a crime), it seems to me that Stephen’s whole learning structure is built upon achieving a goal. Studying for his PhD and MD at the same time was all to enter the field more quickly so he had more time to hone his craft and become the best, and prove it to everyone. Going to Nepal and beginning to learn magic were all for the sake of curing his hands. We haven’t seen much of him after he pivoted his goal into protecting Earth and reality, but all the spellwork we see from him in Ragnarok, IW, and Endgame certainly seem to have been learned with that idea in mind. Sherlock, on the other hand, clearly likes studying things for the sake of knowing things. Unlike Stephen who has an achievement in mind before starting to go for it, Sherlock starts studying things before it necessarily becomes something that he knows for certain he will deal with. Take categorizing the 243 types of tobacco ash. If he came across tobacco ash in a case, I imagine that he’d be more than able to compare ash to the top 20 brands and find a match 99% of the time. While he may claim it is for a future case, you don’t do that unless you genuinely enjoy the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. There is just no guarantee that it will be of any practical use in the future, while we know for certain Stephen’s research for his primary goals is to find solutions to problems both immediate (his hands) and imminent (bad things coming to bother Earth). (And this is one reason I consider Stephen a Slytherin and Sherlock a Ravenclaw, though both could have Ravenclaw and Slytherin as secondaries, respectively.)

Stephen is more interested in the praise, acceptance, and friendship of those he sees as peers and equals. Sherlock is decidedly less interested. This changes a bit through their character arcs, especially Sherlock’s, but let me see if I can explain this clearly. At the beginning of Doctor Strange, we see Stephen performing a surgery in front of residents (or med students, I don’t know), playing a music game with his assistant, and joking with his fellow surgeon. He asks Christine to join him at a dinner conference which is again, about his accolades. He likes getting the respect and admiration of his peers and those he considers friends, like Christine, straight from when we first meet him. When we first meet Sherlock, he doesn’t bother to explain why the ladder being green matters to Greg in the text. He asks for his name to be left out of the papers and definitely doesn’t do his work to impress the police force. If he was looking to get their admiration, he’d act a bit; we know that he can act. But he just doesn’t care what his peers (the police force) think of him at all. It’s not until John enters the picture that Sherlock starts showing off more by explaining his thought processes. Something about John intrigues him, and that grows exponentially when John saves his life at the end of the first episode. I’ve read fics where John’s described Sherlock as a peacock, but he really wasn’t like that until John came around, if the green ladder text and wanting to be kept out of the papers/public eye is any indication. Stephen, however, was most definitely the peacock. Stephen’s interest in acceptance pivots to the Masters of the Mystic Arts when he comes a student by his joking with Wong and Mordo. He’s interested in proving himself to them and gaining their praise and later on (I imagine) their friendship, though sadly we don’t have enough canon film time to see how his relationship with other sorcerers has grown since his first film. He’s likely conceded to the fact that his work is more secretive now, but for those in the know, he wants their acceptance and potential friendships. Sherlock’s bubble expands to wanting the acceptance and praise of maybe five people at most by the end of Season 4, but again, he’s not greatly interested in what his peers amongst the police force think. Wider praise and larger friendships has never been in the books for him. He’s completely content with the small group about him.

Stephen is on the extrovert side of the Myers-Briggs scale,  and Sherlock is on the introvert side. This slightly differs from his comic book self here; comic book Stephen is much more introverted. MCU Stephen isn’t a huge extrovert, but is obviously fully comfortable surrounded by people and being the star of the show, as seen by the beginning of the film. He’s fully content to do activities that are known as more “introverted” such as reading, but a love of reading doesn’t mean one is automatically an introvert. He doesn’t strike me as a personality that would get exhausted when needing to deal with people for longer amounts of time, as I’ve known the introverts in my life to be. Stephen is simply content both alone and with others, and when with others, he likes to show off from time to time. Sherlock, on the other hand, isn’t interested in the attention from the wider world and making friends. All of his preferred activities don’t involve other people and he definitely finds the idea of having to deal with people and societal norms tedious. If he’s showing off, it’s to impress a specific person as opposed to entertain a crowd. And unlike Stephen, I could see Sherlock being exhausted by parties and generally avoiding talking to most people, while Stephen, so long as he’s with a group with similar interests, could definitely talk about it for some time - whether it’s neuroscience or even the same music tastes.

Stephen is more sympathetic than Sherlock. This is not to say that Sherlock lacks sympathy, but as a detective he really has to have a cold detachment to the victims in order for emotions not to override his ability to do his job. This detachment is vital for surgeons as well when operating, and at the beginning of Doctor Strange Stephen could be considered too far in the cold detachment realm in selecting his patients, thinking about his record rather than if a procedure would be in the best interest of the patient due to health risks. This changes immensely with the loss of his career and his new path in life. I think the sympathetic tendencies of both characters can be best seen in how they deliver bad news to strangers:

The Sherlock screencap is from Season 4 Ep 1 (I wanted to select something after the hiatus and Magnusson so I had him after his growth). He’s telling a couple that their son tried to surprise them but ended up suffocating to death by accident. That look isn’t rude, but it’s very by-the-book, delivering the facts with very little emotion. Stephen is from Infinity War, before going through the Time Stone and whatever mess he dealt with in there. He’s telling Tony, not too long after meeting him, that the Time Stone comes above the lives of all of them, he and Peter included. The emotion that comes out on top is a grim determination, but even delivering this news, I would not say that it lacks sympathy. It’s a “this is how it has to happen; I’m sorry” type of emotion. The sympathy in his expression expands exponentially after the Time Stone, but canon hasn’t confirmed just how well he got to know the others. Was he just browsing through and pressing the “forward” button to view futures, or was he living through possible futures? The films haven’t told us yet. Hopefully we get clarification at some point. But that’s why I chose this screencap as opposed to the more obvious Time Stone scene. I think there’s further examples of their levels of sympathy such as Stephen’s reaction to the zealot he killed. One thing they are equal on in sympathy, though, is when it affects someone they care about. Sherlock is incredibly sympathetic to John after his loss, and the care Stephen shows to the Ancient One as she’s dying is very poignant.

Now there are also differences in their physicalities that Benedict does a fantastic job of portraying, such as the subtle shaking in Stephen’s hands in several scenes and Sherlock’s own hand gestures that vary completely from Stephen. They also move differently, and they move differently depending on their moods. He’s done a phenomenal job of distinguishing the two characters through physical motion alone.

Thanks for the interesting ask, anon.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

also i’ve been mulling over the “we’re Living ex machina!!!!” line and like, it still doesn’t make sense Really, but here’s my Afternoon Musings i guess

i’ve only actually seen ex machina once like 3 years ago but as i remember it goes a little something like This: some rando white-collar programmer guy has like, won a contest where the prize is to go hang out for maybe a few days or a week or so with this ~visionary genius~ tech dude played by oscar isaac at oscar isaac tech dude’s off-the-grid reclusive mansion or whatever.......i thiiiink the Protag Programmer won b/c his programming submission was Really Good but also maybe there’s a [randomly selected] element to it, or maybe we Think it was partly random selection but then learn it was actually All “yeah i chose you b/c your coding was the Best,” idk. doesn’t really matter but anyway yeah protag guy gets helicoptered in to the oscar isaac genius bro’s secret mansion 

oscar isaac soon reveals he has this advanced ai android whomst he wants the Protagonist to study / turing test, and the protagonist does that, but during one Conversation Session with this android (who is named ava i think? and designed to Look Like a Woman oo) like the lights turn off and ava-i-think informs the protagonist she’s found a Weakness in the mansion’s security system and hackt it so that the power (and thus the Security / Monitoring Systems) shut down for a minute like this but could feasibly be thought of as a glitch and anyways she’s like yeah i have feelings and thoughts and i want to Not Be Trapped here, ya gotta help me out here buddy, and then yknow ooh the systems come back on, oscar isaac can Observe them again, intrigue.....tl;dr protag and ava keep having these short secret convos and Do plan to break her out, there’s this dramatic moment where oscar isaac (who’s natch been acting weirder and more erratic as the plot unfolds) confronts the protag after the protag has just like, tried to get him blackout smashed by Hanging Out With Him lmfao and oscar isaac is like “ooh i knew you were planning to break her out, i’m gonna stop you guys though haha pwned” but then oh further twist, turns out ava and protag Knew that was the case and were thinking one step ahead and idk but yeah they break her out and oscar isaac dies but ooh further twist!!! ava locks the protag (or well, just Does Not Unlock, As Planned) in some room and leaves the mansion and gets on the Helicopter meant to take the protag back to wherever after the planned end of his stay. and the protag is just stuck there b/c everyone else is dead and presumably he dies as ava gets to exist in the outside world now, idk, we don’t need ex machina 2 where he’s escaped or smthing lmao

and i do NOT get what winston is comparing their situation to lmfao. like, oh rian is like an advanced ai android??? if anything, her being the more like ~true believer in High Finance as a means of socially beneficial effect~ vs winston like, having the supposedly cutthroat and cold Math approach would make Him more of the ~oh no more a robot than a person~ (though i think it’s Ambiguous whether we wanna judge ava as more Scary Bad or Sympathetic).........you can’t even really make the connection that “oh no we’re being deliberately Replaced!!” b/c if winston is [protag programmer rando] and rian is [ava] and wendy is, i guess oscar isaac then, uhhhh oscar isaac most definitely did Not intend to ~replace~ the protag with ava, he very much wanted her trapped in his mansion still........and the protagonist Only got “replaced” by ava in the sense that she took his place on the helicopter out of the reclusive secret mansion. i really doubt she planned to, or would even be able to, like take over his identity/life beyond that.....certainly not his job lol like, coworkers are gonna notice you’re a different person, there was no implication the androids can like oh shapeshift their appearance or whatever, and no implications about what ava even intended to do in the Outside World which is kind of bemusing b/c like, what of the Practical Questions of being an android and needing whatever Fuel Source a robot does, idk that might’ve been addressed or smthing like “oh yeah they can just Eat,” also she clearly does not Trust People considering her only company was evil oscar isaac creator and she wasn’t interested in bringing the protag along, plus yknow the fact that she Did deliberately manipulate the protag into thinking that she wanted to escape into the world With him........but not like i guess she has any choice for any other world to escape into but the one with all the people where she pretends to be an organic human

like there is just NO point of comparison where these situations line up unless you get soooooooo like broad strokes about ex machina that you’d do better to compare your experience to Anything else lmao. like, does winston think she’s some like, ideal advanced version of him?? like you might consider a crafted AI android to be?? i don’t know but i mean i think we have a more feasible explanation for why he’s so Insistent about this totally being Ex Machina, if only b/c as a straightforward comparison i swear to god it doesn’t work lmfao None of these points line up at all with any significance that’s worth insisting on

given that winston’s Apparently Canonically meant to be crushing on rian, and we have his example of ribbing her by calling her “gal gadot’s quirky sister” which is like, okay so the dunk is “you look similar to this famous a-lister who everyone thinks is pretty” and “also you’re quirky, boom” like, i think that could easily be meant as like, a Tell that winston already ~likes~ her.............aaaand it’s also somewhat ~ambiguous~ but i mean i think it’s safe to say that in Ex Machina you may understand the protag as having Fallen For the ai android lady. so maybe we can Understand this invocation of ex machina as being like “ooh person meant to replace me is Attractive but ultimately i think this Overall Situation is a bad thing i shouldn’t feel this way i resent it” like, a bit of a Reach, but honestly it’s way more of a reach to think about applying anything else about this scenario to ex machina, so i could v much believe that the thought that went behind writing this is once again, like, “okay winston’s invoking one thing on the surface level here, but simultaneously he’s already (inadvertently probably) acknowledging like oh also i have a crush on her already”

between this episode seeming to be Setup and the [winston has a Canon crush] and the fact that it probably seems like They Will Fuck A Nonzero Number Of Times or Make Out At Least But It’s Billions So, Might Get A Humorous Cut To [Postcoital] Or A Scene Where They Arrive At Work Together Short Of Breath With Messy Hair  And Hickies And Winston’s Got A Hoodie W/ “Property Of Rian” On It Until He Goes "Oh Shit Woops” And Hands It To Her And She’s Like “Oh Btw You Forgot Your Glasses.....Uh You Left Them Here On Your Desk Yesterday I Mean Of Course” And Hands Them To Him And An Unnamed Character Stands Up And Asks “Daily Poll: Who Had Sex With A Coworker Last Night” And Rian And Winston Raise Their Hands Before Going “Oh Wait” And Lowering Them With A Shake Of The Head And A Nervous Cough and i’m exaggerating but you know, the equivalent of the billions writing saying “wwinnnk” at us. i am fine with them having an unsolemn like, quasi-rivals-to-lovers (or -And-lovers) dynamic, even with it being a bit messy in like, still an overall Fun way, where yknow it doesn’t have to be peak epic romance cuz a) that’s just Always true and yet it can still be overall an okay thing even if they don’t quite get it together / mostly just trade sparks and sometimes hook up and b) idk seems like mayybe rian’s character isn’t meant to go beyond this season, so, an inherent limit there if true

i’m like Apologetic for being like “already i like their dynamic even as Romantique and it’s kinda cute and fun and i’m willing to continue to be engaged w/ this as long as the writing doesn’t completely fuck it up” lmao like, i guess i Did inadvertently give myself time to prepare for this exact eventuality b/c of wondering if this exact character would have A Thing w/ winston whenever she showed up and even if i was like “haha the character could show up Anywhere and do Anything and what are the odds, right” i was also like “hmm but i’m going to really think about it though” like, as always, didn’t think i was cassandraing that hard, but truly did do it 4x03 style where everyone else can be like “you never [made the text post or gave any indication you were thinking about “what if whoever she plays and winston have some kind of romance thing going on”]” and i can go “i only thought it but didn’t say it....doesn’t count” but well. i did think it lmao and why would i make it up.......sorry i had such a head start on Getting More Used To This Notion.......some crimes can never be forgiven.meme.......

anyways natch “intense horrible passionate” seems a little foreboding but maybe she was talking about it relative to [any Normal show] rather than the standards we’re used to on billions, where this was all but a Meet Cute, and a kind of quasi coworker rivalry where nobody’s taking it *that* deeply seriously and they also seem to mutually like each other by the end of 5x05 already so how not-amicable can it get. and re: Intense like, maybe the writing in future episodes will totally upend this, but i’d say rian and winston in 5x05, even when “clashing,” was like damn near laidback and chill. neither of them seem at all that pressed, but maybe even a sorta-playful Friendly Rivalry is more “intense” than, say, a dynamic that involves no rivalry at all. imo “Passionate” is just like, okay, so they’ll fuck or at least make out? sure. not sure what to make of “horrible” lmfao maybe again it’s addressing like “this is a lil messy and they’re kinda rivals!!!” like, certainly not an ideal start, except by billions standards it IS weirdly great. rian seeming good-naturedly amused by winston is something we didn’t get from his longtime-coworkers until like, now, sort of, and still not to the degree that anyone has smiled at him as many times as rian did in like that course of [1 min long First Scene Together] wherein also winston always gets off to a way worse start with people lmao............like everything about this seems Way Better And More Dialed Back And Grounded than usual, actually. but it’s that like, point of reference of “what’s Usual for winston and, more broadly, Billions” that maybe explains this weirdly strong language when all in 5x05 seemed chill actually

anyways like i said Sorry For Already Liking Rian/Winston This Much with my head start and all where like, i’m even tentatively looking forward to seeing where this goes, by “tentative” i also mean going [”i’ll kill you” the office.jpg] at billions where i am fully aware that maybe where this goes *is* a mess and not in like, just kind of a fun, non-melodramatic, not-treated-like-a-total-joke-but-also-not-that-big-a-deal way, where 5x05 could seem like Those Halcyon Days b/c everything from here out just devolves into an unappealing disaster.......but this is an unexpectedly solid start imo and like. even if this doesn’t become like this epic romance where they officially date and if rian does eventually depart the show by the end of the season, it can still just be Enjoyable and Fun for the characters and, god forbid, the viewers, where like, you don’t have to demand we be desperately invested with our entire life in this deadly serious heartwrenching epic romance, they can just kind of mess around and enjoy having a mutual attraction w/ this mathy rivalry and etc and it’s neither a tragedy of “the greatest love story of all time torn asunder” Or, truly god forbid,” this is a Whole Mess In A Bad Way b/c winston’s involved and ugh who could Really like him, being at all romantically entangled is an embarrassing mistake surely, ew cringe we hate him............like, cautiously optimistic in how like i always say that a Romantic Arc is just an easy/efficient way to develop both characters and it could certainly humanize winston an ounce in a show that treats him more like a walking algorithmic plot device and the thoughts of any viewers but us are limited to “winston annoying” basically........the show doesn’t seem to treat rian as a joke, so it seems possible that their mutual Romance in whatever way it unfolds could also be Not A Joke, which means winston’s part in it isn’t a joke, so that’s Some aspect of him for people to take seriously, for once..........like, the way his apparently-already-official crush played out in 5x05 *was* funny but it also didn’t seem like oh it’s a joke b/c his feelings are a total joke......it might seem that way if this *was* totally unrequited and going nowhere, but i somewhat get the sense that the interest is mutual even by the end of the ep, that didn’t strike me as a “shove off, it could Never Happen” shutdown from rian there, just like, hold off on that for rn maybe cue to rein it in a little, not just yet........anyways lmao i’m like “oh yeah i started this post about the baffling ex machina thing” but yeah the point is i think so far it’s pretty solid and i like it and am cautiously but [relative-to-billions level of Hopeful] about whatever developments we’re surely gonna get b/c it def sounds like this has Not ended with 5x05, but seriously @ billions i swear to god. yes so far the approach to winston’s crush here and even their unfolding mutual dynamique and dare i say, romantic interest, is being handled with an encouraging level of “this is Humorous but the characters / their feelings are not what’s being treated as A Total Joke or anything,” but who knows what will come next, this is billions and you can’t predict anything. fingers crossed about it all, though

[theticklishpear]

Hi, I just wondered if you could help me with tips on how to write fiction in a diary format? Specifically creating tension as well as engaging scenes with mainly telling/summary. Some background without too much detail... its a horror short story involving the "haunting" of a MC where halfway through it'll change to normal narrative and the story unfolds real-time. Any other pointers you could would be useful for me to bear in mind would be appreciated. Thanks :)

The diary or journal format of story-telling is a near cousin to the epistolary, in which the story is told through letters. After all, aren’t diaries and journals basically just letters we write to ourselves? We’re not usually writing for it to be read by someone else - we’re trying our best to be real and say our true thoughts and feelings about a situation in a safe place. We use diaries and journals to be seen, even if that’s just helping ourselves see ourselves better.

So what makes a diary story work?

Voice.

These stories are all about the narrator being an actual person, not just some metaphorical god-voice describing life in as beautiful and highfalutin of terms possible. This is a real human being caught up in events they probably weren’t expecting, dealing with people they may not have thought they’d be dealing with, talking about real things happening to them. It’s key to the life and vitality of the story that it carry that voice to the audience and that the voice is strong. Just because you’re writing a diary doesn’t mean every entry has to start with, “Dear Diary.” In fact, depending on the character, it probably won’t.

While I said at the start that we often write to ourselves, sometimes diaries and journals are written as though someone might theoretically read them in the future. Consider how your character thinks of these entries. Are they trying to leave a message to someone who might come across the diary later? Are they writing to comfort themselves? Are they writing to an imaginary audience because it helps them to cope with what’s going on? What’s your character’s reason to write and relationship to their writings? That can help inform their tone and the kinds of things they might write about.

The device in D.J. MacHale’s Pendragon series is that the main character is on a different plane/planet/time from his friends who are receiving his journals periodically. His friends never know if it will be the last set of journals they’ll receive, and Bobby is writing his adventures specifically for his friends, so they are thorough and actually a fairly typical narrative structure in first person. This is possible because of the reason for Bobby’s writing them.

You still have standard narrative tools available to you; they just might look a little different. Descriptions that in an average narrative structure might have time to breathe and grow into longer, more detailed things will likely be shorter, more to-the-point, more visceral. You can feed on the real and disjointed way of describing that people have in conversation. Rather than needing it to sound “good” and to choose the perfect words to craft beautiful storytelling, you can embrace the garbage words we choose for ourselves. Descriptions can focus on fewer background details, fewer things we might include in longer stories to help build out the world.

Internal thoughts and monologues about what the character feels and thinks about what’s being witnessed are more able to be put front-and-center since these entries are directly from them. The story’s already purposefully being set behind a filter, so you might as well embrace it.

Dialogue is absolutely still an option for you. It may be just the essentials of a conversation, but don’t feel like you’re just constrained to telling. You can show, too; you just have to be judicious about it.

Tension comes from format as much as the events. When constructing these entries, take the practicality of sitting down to write an entry into account. Time is passing, always, for your character, even while they’re writing. Some days they won’t have time to write so you wind up with time gaps. These leave an audience looking at the dates from one entry to the next and wondering what could have happened to keep them from writing for so long. Sometimes your character only has five minutes to scribble down an update rather than write something long and detailed. Those short entries help to speed up pacing, which is a great way to get your reader turning those pages and tightening up subconsciously.

In the same vein, not every entry has to have a complete arc the way a scene does in a standard narrative structure. People get interrupted. These, like chapter cliffhangers, need to be used with enormous care and purpose, and sparingly. Remember that every entry will bring your character up to their present, even if it’s not what you think of as the present of the story.

In Tamora Pierce’s Beka Cooper books, which are all three written in journal format, Beka sometimes writes more than one entry per day as she has time to write throughout her chores and jobs. As a way to bring the audience into the urgency of a situation, entries will sometimes end with Beka remarking on something going on as she’s writing and then leaving it abruptly: “I’d drifted off, thinking of other things I had learned in Dale’s rooms, when I heard loud voices downstairs. I must go.” End entry.

Other times there may be simply a date but no entry, as though Beka intended to write but either didn’t have time, didn’t have anything to say on what had happened, or wasn’t quite ready to write. Sometimes there are more device-like endings in which Beka notes her tiredness and begins to spell poorly before an intense part of her day’s story, saying “[she] can barely see [her] page” and must sleep for now. This is a bit of a cheaper trick, but the forced pause for the reader does initiate some amount of excitement and trepidation for what’s to come.

Bobby in the Pendragon series often pauses his journals before something big is about to go down so he can send a final goodbye to his friends at the end: “The crazy thing was, this all came about because of two people who never could have foreseen the outcome of their actions. .... It was clear to me now. The turning point for Denduron wasn’t the battle between the Milago and the Bedoowan. ....[T]here was something else that became clear. I wasn’t going home. .... This may be my last journal I write to you, Mark and Courtney. If it is, then please know that it wasn’t your fault about the flashlight. All you did was help out a friend. The blame is all mine. If you don’t hear from me again, then please know I did everything I could to undo the mess I created. I may not be successful, but at least I tried. Thank you for reading this, and for being my friends. Hopefully this isn’t a final good-bye.” This helps remind the audience that, indeed, Bobby could die. Just because he appears to be the main character, and is the author of the journals, doesn’t mean he’s not in grave danger. He can still die, he can still be injured, and it helps to make the audience curious about how he gets out of his predicament.

That’s where your tension comes from. Making danger a reality for your protagonist and making your audience curious to see how it goes.

It is more important than ever to keep yourself present with your character. Tense and timeline can get tricky with diary entries, so make sure that when you’re writing an entry, you keep in mind exactly where in the timeline your character is. While you’re writing, don’t think about what’s coming up next for your character. That kind of thing has a tendency to sneak into these style of stories. Stay in the moment with your character, not in the future with your notes. Let them say things that are wrong because they don’t know the answer yet. Let them guess about their next step and what their plans are for tackling their situation, even if you know that’s most definitely not what’s going to happen.

Good luck!-Pear

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of Marvel: Week of July 24th, 2019

Best of this Week: House of X #1 - Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia and Clayton Cowles

“You have new Gods now.” - Erik Lehnsherr, 2019

The new era of X-Men is here and for all of its familiarity, it does something new and sort of unsettling with a tried and true formula. This is thanks to the beauty and scale of Larraz’s art and the far and wide nature with which Jonathan Hickman is crafting yet another saga to rival both his SHIELD and Avengers runs. If you let it, House of X will engulf you in a rich new mutant world filled with happiness and untold amounts of pride by it end, but also with a good helping of fear… as if everything is just a little bit off.

The book begins with a great wide shot of a figure staring up at what appears to be the root of or at least some important part of a tree. Two other figures, a woman with red hair and a man with glowing eyes, are birthed from two sacs under the tree and we get the familiar line, “To me, my X-Men. Presumably, this is Charles Xavier and as we progress, this idea is made clear as it seems we are doing away with the “X” identity he took up during Astonishing X-Men (2018). This also serves as some clear symbolism of a new rebirth for the X-Men.

Over the next few panels, we are shown shots of various X-Men planting flowers, plucked from the island of Krakoa, in various areas from their home in Westchester, New York to Mars, the moon and the Savage Land. The book is then framed around Magneto and two of the Stepford Cuckoos giving ambassadors from various countries a tour of the various locales that Krakoa has been placed upon as they ponder Charles’ proposed deal. This deal would allow them to make use of the flowers of Krakoa for various medicinal purposes, possibly making the world a much better place, so long as they agree to recognizing the sovereignty of the Krakoa nation state. A new Haven for Mutantkind.

Of course there have been such efforts made in the past. Genosha, the first and most prominently mentioned example, is alluded to have been the catalyst for humankind not being taken over by the mutant X gene. Mutantkind apparently would have become the dominant race on the planet Earth within ten years if not for Genosha’s destruction. Asteroid M and Utopia weren’t mentioned, but my guess is that they simply weren’t as impactful in regard to mutant kind likely because of the events of House of M (2005) dwindling their numbers to nothing. As it stands now, after the implementation of Krakoa spiking the birth rates to much higher than previously calculated, that humanity has about 20 years left.

These estimations are made by a brand new organization known as The Orchis Protocol, a network built for the purpose of monitoring evolutionary anomalies and preparing a doomsday protocol in case humanity is threatened by Homo Superior. The organization apparently consists of ex assets from practically all major organizations in the Marvel Universe from AIM, SHIELD and Hydra to even Hammer, Alpha Flight and SWORD. Some of Larraz’s best shots are in the scenes where we’re introduced to this mysterious group. They pilot a ship towards the sun and we get a good shot of the outside of a portion of their space station as they dock their ship.

Karima, an Omega Sentinel character that hasn’t been seen since sometime after Second Coming (2010) accompanies an Orchis higher up as they talk about the state of absolutely giant station so close to the sun. We get a bit of a tour before we get the best and most ominous shot of the full station. It appears to be the head of MASTER MOLD surrounded by hexagonal plates, the most terrifying shape in all of fiction. Master Mold hasn’t been really seen since about 1994, and again in 2010 because of universe jump in Second Coming. Master Mold was one of the X-Men’s most dangerous threats for it ability to produce sentinels at a rapid rate, so there’s no way that this can mean anything good.

Cutting back to New York, Mystique, Sabretooth and Toad are stealing information from the Damage Control Database. Mystique and Toad manage to get away, but Creed is captured by Invisible Woman and the rest of the Fantastic Four. Scott Summers shows up to remind them of the amnesty that’s apparently been granted to mutants, including thieves and possible killers like Sabretooth. Scott and, normally even tempered, Reed butt heads a little bit as Reed has a problem with Sabretooth getting away with his crimes and Scott acquiesces, seeing that Reed is serious. Scott does leave them with one sick burn as he tells Reed and Sue that Franklin has actual family on Krakoa when he’s ready.

What I love best about this scene is just how smug Reed is about all of this. For years, mutants have tried to stay out of the affairs of the greater Superhero world out of fear for their reputations. The shoe is on the other foot now that they have all of the leverage and the power that they so deserve. Even more awesomely, Scott’s new costume is a fantastic design combining the best of his Astonishing costume with the angular design of his Uncanny X-Men costume, minus the X mask, with blue lines instead of red.

Speaking of colors, Marte Garcia excelled in this regard. There’s so much symbolism to be gleaned from something as simple as a color change. Cyclops wore that suit in a red hue when he was a violent radical; having it recolored blue gives off the hint that he’s still a radical, but in the way that he dealt with the situation between Reed, he’s more hands off, non-violent even. Magneto normally wears red and purple when he’s angry and evil and gray during the AXIS (2015) era and that alluded to his anti-hero nature during that time. This go around he’s wearing white. He’s also peaceful, but at the same time he’s as graceful and imposing as he always has been, never betraying the idea that he is still the same man, but won’t harm anyone as long as they respect mutants. The most glaring example is the change in color from the AIM scientists where they’re wearing red instead of yellow.

In between each different scene we’re given these little interludes in the form of documents called Xavier files. These give some background on the new elements introduced in the book and the best one is the Omega Level file. There have been hundreds of mutants introduced over the years, many of which could have been considered Omega Level mutants, but thanks to Hickman’s expert writing, things have been parsed down to just fourteen. On Twitter, he stated that the X-Men lore was nothing but chaos, so he wrote a 14,000 word memo on what the new status quo would be, including limiting the use of the term “Omega Level.” This undoubtedly helps to establish something of a power structure given the high number of mutants that are known about while also acknowledging other heroes. Notably, while Forge is a master of technopathy, his level has been surpassed by humans in the past, but Magneto is the only master of Magnetism.

I want to bring things back to the tour. After it is over, several of the ambassadors agree to support Xavier. Russia’s ambassador never had intentions too, neither did one of the representatives of STRIKE as he was simply assigned to watch another ambassador. The last ambassador had a weapon hidden and Magneto immediately dismantles it and promises to each of them that things will be different. He wants them to tell their superiors that while Charles made the offer out of grace and love, it is NOT a negotiation.

Magneto takes pride in this. So much so that his assurance and steadfastness in his stance is powerful. It moved me. He tells them to be grateful for the bounty they’re receiving out of graciousness as mutants, like Thanos, are inevitable. It’s like he can actually see a future, one not shrouded in darkness for mutants and he’s smiling because he knows it’s coming.

This is one of the more interesting aspects of the book. Charles Xavier had always wanted to coexist with humanity, but after years of divisions and attacks, he seems to mostly be done with that. He’s willing to give humanity Krakoa’s flowers to make pills that will help them as long as they leave mutants alone. He’s effectively made something that will definitely topple the pharmaceutical market and he has to know that humanity would start to get very afraid. Not only that, but Krakoa has the ability to create portals that can move mutants from place to place without humans being able to track where they’re going. Of course the ambassadors are afraid of the use they could have as far as movement and positioning in case things went to war, but Magneto assures them that it is only them that wants war.

Everything seems perfect. Everything seems like it’s going to be alright, but that helmet… something about that helmet and the bodysuit reminds me of The Maker, another Jonathan Hickman creation from his turn on The Ultimates. It scares me and I needed that, I needed something to keep me hooked and the fear that everything is not as it seems is just that.

House of X hit the ground running. While it does little to acknowledge the fantastic Uncanny X-Men run from Matthew Rosenberg, that’s probably for the best. Jonathan Hickman does his best work when he has a fresh slate. He took over Avengers from Brian Michael Bendis and made an amazing story over the course of nearly four years. He reinvigorated SHIELD and the Fantastic Four with innovative stories that had nothing to do with the books prior to them. Hell, the reverberations of his runs on each of these are still being felt to this day.

Pepe Larraz was possibly the absolute best artist to capture Hickman’s vision for this project. His high angles and wide shots give credence to the size of the story. His facial expressions give into the idea that mutants have won this time, there’s hope where previously there was none. Body language surprisingly upbeat, bouncy even. There’s a lot to say about symbolism in terms of sun positioning in many scenes. The book has many showing the sun rising, symbolically showing a rise for the mutants. I see Orchis base near the sun as an allegory for Icarus flying too close to it. As the book ends with a sunset over Jerusalem, I see things as the sun setting on the time of humanity.

X-Men and their vast history is absolutely ripe for fine tuning if not complete destruction only for it to be made bigger and better in the years to come. I have no idea where this story is going and with 80,000 spin-offs incoming with a bunch of different creative teams, there will absolutely be something for everyone. In an attempt to revitalize a part of the world that used to sell like gangbusters, Jonathan Hickman is gearing up to shoot the X-Men right back up to the moon and light the world on fire behind them.

[teenybeanielinguine]

Outlander Season 5 - A Girl Can Dream

 It’s been a little over two weeks since the Season 4 finale... and DAMN, the withdrawal is hitting me hard.  I’ve rewatched all my favorite scenes, re-read all my favorite passages, and scoured Tumblr for every piece of fanfiction available.  But nothing seems capable of filling the Outlander-shaped void in my heart.

Since I clearly have nothing better to do (not true; there are A LOT of other things I should be doing), I’ve decided to grace you all with my unsolicited thoughts (no need to thank me).  Season 5 has no announced release date, but I’m not known for my patience, so I’m hopping on the crazy train a little early.  Destination: The Fiery Cross. (Spoilers ahead.)

About The Fiery Cross

I’ve read quite a few posts that label Drums of Autumn as the pivotal point in the series.  I respectfully disagree.

DoA felt like the next step in a gradual evolution.  It’s true that Bree and Roger gained their independence from the J/C plotline in DoA, but DG had been prepping us for this divergence for quite a while.  Claire was our only narrator in Outlander, and while she remains the only 1st person POV, other characters have been quietly adding their voices to hers.  Roger joined her in Dragonfly in Amber, followed by Jamie and John Grey in Voyager, and we finally get Brianna in Drums of Autumn (that’s RIGHT: in the main books, we hear Roger’s POV before we ever hear Jamie’s).  Because of these constantly expanding POVs, DoA just felt like a natural progression, rather than a huge departure from the status quo.

The Fiery Cross, on the other hand, feels like a turning point.  Not only is it the first book to not get a newly added POV, but the story starts to get a little... unpredictable.

All of the books have a fair amount of twistiness and unpredictability, but our characters have pretty clear goals in each installation so far: get back to the stones, save Jamie from Black Jack, prevent the Rising, prevent Culloden, make Brianna believe the truth, find Jamie after 20 years, rescue Young Ian, establish the Ridge, warn Jamie and Claire about the fire, rescue Roger...  I know I’m generalizing here, but you get the point.  Our heroes all have clearly defined end goals, and they’re putting all their energy into achieving them, despite the twists and turns that DG throws their way.  The characters may not always succeed, but you, the reader, always know where the story is headed.

By the start of The Fiery Cross, the goals are a little broader, more nebulous.  There may be unrest in North Carolina, the American Revolution may be looming in the distance, but basically the Fraser family just wants to live in peace on the Ridge.  That’s it.  No daring rescues, no dramatic reunions; they just want some peace and quiet.  Of course, they aren’t going to get it, because this is Outlander-verse, where Murphy’s Law is on steroids.

So the Frasers play it by ear, taking on every new challenge as it comes.  There is no clear path forward, they just have to react as best they can to the events around them.  In consequence, the reader gets a series of smaller meandering stories, with the distinct feeling that something bigger is happening in the background.  I personally love this, because I have no clue what’s going to happen next, so when something big happens, it takes me completely by surprise.  And you get to see the characters just exist in day-to-day life, which is the best.  Some of the characters still have personal goals (spoiler alert: Stephen Bonnet definitely did NOT die in that explosion), but the pursuit of those goals isn’t driving the story nearly as much as in past installments.

This is all to say that, while Season 5 is going to have to hit some major plot points, there is (in my opinion) a fair amount of breathing room for interpretation, and lots of fun to be had.  I’m fascinated to see the show tackle this new challenge.

My Wish List for Season 5

When I say “wish list”, I don’t mean to imply a series of demands.  I have no creative control over the adaptation, and I’m not listing these wishes in the vain hope that someone on the production team will notice.  This is just for fun, and I will be perfectly content if none of these make it into the show.  Also, not all of these are pulled from the book; some of them are just things I would love to see.

So here are my top ten wishes, in no particular order:

Roger the Fangirl.  In the midst of all the Roger-hate this past season, the OL fandom has forgotten one crucial fact: Roger is the ultimate J/C shipper.  This romantic idiot is the whole reason that Claire went back in time to find Jamie!  You’d think Jamie’s fists would have beaten the ship right out of Roger, but if last season proves anything, it’s that Roger doesn’t give up easily.  He’s gonna keep shipping like his life depends on it, and there are some really cute moments in TFC where he fangirls over how adorable Jamie and Claire are together (also, Jamie is going to become his new idol).  I suppose it would be unrealistic to hope that he and Murtagh form a fan club next season...?

Brothers and Sisters.  Am I the only one who wanted to scream when Brianna and Fergus were right next to each other in the Wilmington jail and they didn’t acknowledge each other?  By the end of S4, we don’t even know whether Fergus and Marsali know about Bree’s existence (I mean, Fergus helped capture Bonnet, but he and Marsali didn’t say a word about Bree), and that frustrates me to no end.  The books skipped over the getting-to-know-you stuff too, which is crazy considering that they are siblings (adopted or not)!  I would kill for a scene where Jamie and Claire are struggling to explain why they have a fully-grown daughter, as well as some bonding time between siblings.  Bree and Marsali are definitely going to get along, cause badass women stick together.

The Snake Bite.  The snake bite incident (aftermath included) is one of my favorite sequences in TFC.  It brings Roger and Jamie closer together, it shows the courage of the Fraser women in a crisis, and it rallies the entire Ridge community in their worry for Jamie.  I suppose it’s sadistic of me, but I loved watching everyone freak out when they thought Jamie was going to die or lose a leg.  And then the 20th century women come to the rescue!  An entire episode dedicated to that whole plotline would be amazing.

Grannie and Grand-da.  Claire and Jamie are not only adorable as grandparents, they’re relatable AF.  They might love their new grandson to pieces, but that’s not going to stop them from being honest about the realities of childcare.  Jamie in particular is hilarious; he builds an entire house at top speed to get away from the screeching baby (and his newly reunited parents), and then he compares Bree unflatteringly to the white sow (not to her face, of course; see Chapter 30 for a good laugh).  I’d love to see that side of Jamie and Claire next season.

Wolf’s Brother.  We might have said a tearful goodbye to Young Ian in the S4 finale, but we haven’t seen the last of him.  My guess is that he’s going to make a dramatic reappearance in the S5 finale, but I really hope we see him before then.  Showing Young Ian’s time among the Mohawk would give Outlander a chance to showcase the amazing First Nations actors that appeared in S4 (Braeden Clarke, anyone?) as well as explore how Ian slowly blends his Highland upbringing with Mohawk customs.

Claire the Science Nerd.  So far all of Claire’s medical expertise has been utilized in life-or-death situations, but establishing a medical practice on the Ridge gives her the opportunity to geek out over plants and experiment in reproducing 20th century medicine in the 18th century.  Over the course of TFC, she gives genetics lessons, performs two tonsillectomies, and produces penicillin (among other things).  This passion for her craft is one of the reasons I love Claire so much.  And her nerd moments aren’t always serious: one of my favorite scenes in the book features Claire and her microscope giving Jamie a hilarious lesson in reproductive biology.

Fraser’s Ridge.  We didn’t get to see much of the Ridge community in S4, although Jamie did allude to the farmers who contributed the grain to make whisky.  The community is comprised of a growing array of Scottish immigrants, and the drama they bring to Claire and Jamie’s lives wavers between amusing and disastrous.  I don’t think the show will have time to explore the entire cast of characters, but I’m hoping to see Thomas Christie and his children introduced, at least.  I’ve always found Tom Christie a strangely compelling character; his children, on the other hand, are nothing more than a necessary evil.  I also really hope we meet the twins, Josiah and Keziah Beardsley (Lizzie’s story is about to get really interesting).

The MacKenzie Bloodline.  Despite all the time-traveling she’s been doing, Claire has yet to meet any of her ancestors (that we know of...  DG might be holding out on us).  Roger, on the other hand, is not going to be so lucky (if you’ve read all eight books, you’ll know that Roger runs into his ancestors A LOT).  By the end of S4, I’m not sure Jamie is aware that his daughter is married to Geillis Duncan and Dougal MacKenzie’s descendant, but I wanna be there when he and Murtagh find out (a perfect opportunity for some good dialogue and tension).  And while Roger may be able to explain his ancestry to Jamie and Murtagh (both of whom are fully aware of the existence of time travel), he’s not going to be able to give the same explanation to Jocasta.  In the beginning of TFC, there’s a really great conversation between Jocasta and Roger where Jocasta is kinda fishing around for clues about Roger’s family.  Roger, of course, can’t tell her that he’s actually her great-great-grandnephew (give or take a few ‘great’s).  My hope is that the show includes some version of this conversation and continues to play around with Roger’s MacKenzie heritage (and all its implications).

Future Talk.  With three time-travelers in the family, there’s bound to be some discussion of the future.  Especially with the tension mounting in North Carolina and Murtagh aligning himself with the Regulators.  I am yearning for some deep discussion between Jamie, Murtagh, and the travelers about the events to come.  I have a hunch that either Claire or Bree has already informed Murtagh about the American Revolution, based on a comment he made to Jocasta about a “different ending”, but I want to see it actually played out on screen.  The interplay between the characters who know the future and those who don’t is fascinating to me, and I want more of it.

Jamie the Protector.  Jamie’s protective instincts have had some disastrous consequences this past season, but he is going to redeem himself next season.  Early on in TFC, Jamie claims Roger as the “son of his house”, and he proceeds to stand by that claim throughout the book, especially in the aftermath of Roger’s wrongful hanging at the hands of Governor Tryon.  This time, Jamie’s protective feelings aren’t going to result in a beating, though it’s a close call.  I love this shift, from Jamie beating Roger to Jamie protecting/avenging Roger; it’s a very satisfying development.

Bonus: Geese.  Brianna and Roger may have a child together, but they have never lived together as a married couple.  They also don’t have very much experience being in a serious relationship (S4 showed us that they really don’t know how to argue properly).  However, they have both grown up quite a bit since their hand fasting, and you get to see them learning how to coexist in Chapter 33 of TFC.  It’s a great scene, where Roger’s just come back with the militia, and he and Bree have a meaningless fight because she hasn’t had it easy since the militia left.  But they resolve their argument peacefully as Bree vents her frustrations to Roger and gives him a drawing of some geese as a Christmas present.  A really wonderful everyday moment.

There are, of course, more things I’d like to see, but these are my favorites.  I thought I’d list them out now, since this is going to be a LONG Droughtlander, and I am sure to get obsessed with something else eventually (the new A Discovery of Witches show looks promising).  Also, I’m going to temporarily forget about Season 5 if Bees comes out first.

What are your wishes for Season 5?  If you choose to respond, please be kind and respectful.

[adapted-batteries]

Let’s Take A Selfie

Fandom: The Librarians

Rating: General/sfw

Relationship: Casekiel

Word Count: 2732

When Ezekiel hears Cassandra say she hasn’t had her picture taken for anything but school photos and her driver’s license, his heart breaks. He may not be able to change her childhood, but he is determined to make her future much more picture filled.

Starts post “And the Image of an Image” and goes to post “And the Eternal Question.”

Also posted to my Ao3.

-----

“You know I think I’ve only had my picture taken like…fourteen times...um, yearbooks, driver’s license, mathete honors society...”

The whole mission was weird, considering they were against someone Ezekiel thought was just a fictional character until Jenkins said otherwise. He hated seeing Cassandra be the bearer of Dorian’s actions especially, but something else stuck with him after they got back to the Annex.

It was one thing having your face everywhere thanks to traffic cams and such, but to know that Cassandra didn’t really have pictures outside of school pulled at his heartstrings. He himself wasn’t camera shy at all, considering he was Ezekiel Jones, professor of awesome, and that required photographic evidence (see ollie impossible off the Great Sphinx of Giza).

What hurt worse was that he knew her parents didn’t do anything family like, no pictures of two year old Cassandra with icing all over her face and hands, no picture of five year old Cassandra ready to tackle kindergarten, no vacation photos on the beach or at a theme park, no Christmas home movies full of tearing open gifts and excited shrieking. All the things he had in his head as an ideal childhood, or at least a normal one, and she hadn’t had any (though now he thought of it, probably none of them had that, maybe Flynn or Eve did, but he didn’t really know much about their families). Why he wanted to make Cassandra feel better, he didn’t know, but he was determined to change that number for her as much as he could.

The next mission they went out on, Ezekiel surveyed their surroundings for an ideal selfie. Fortunately for him, they ended up in Milan, specifically right in front of Duomo di Milano. Stone was busy lecturing/nerding out to a flock of elderly tourists, Ezekiel was straining not to pickpocket any of them, Eve was watching the whole ordeal all like a mom who just took her kids to a busy playground, and Cassandra was taking in the massive cathedral in awe. When he looked over at her, he saw his chance.

“Hey Cassandra, let’s take a selfie,” he said casually, sliding up next to her with his back to the cathedral, camera app already open.

She looked over at him, mildly confused. “What?”

“Selfie. Turn around so I can take it,” he instructed. She still seemed confused about the whole thing, but obliged him with a smile in the picture.

“What was that for?” she asked after he lowered his arm.

“I like to document where I go. It’s been awhile since I’ve been here,” he answered, hoping she didn’t press any further.

Fortunately Eve decided to round them up. “Alright guys, we need to actually get in the cathedral, not stand outside.”

He didn’t get to take any more pictures with her until after they finished the mission. Turns out catacombs are not the most ideal photography spots, especially when you’re running through them. Dust and cobweb covered, they had just pulled themselves up through a hidden tunnel that happened to empty right in the middle of the cathedral. Eve and Stone had occupied the priests and security that came running at them, leaving Ezekiel to see Cassandra perfectly framed by a sunbeam coming through a window. He didn’t consider himself one of those “aesthetic photographers,” but the scene had him reaching for his phone before he could think about it. He hurriedly took out his phone and snapped a couple shots just before she shook her head and went about dislodging the cobwebs that had been glowing in the light like a halo.

For those few seconds, Ezekiel could only describe her as angelic, a title mostly unrelated to his thought of Eve as a guardian angel, considering that was a very different theme altogether (much less soft and glowy and much more deadly).

Five minutes and a call to Jenkins later, they were back in the Annex, alive and mostly well save for Stone who just had to slip on some bones and slam into the wall, who was doing his best to not put pressure on his left leg.

Apparently while he was being all heroic, he didn’t take any pictures (not that DARPA was very photogenic anyway), but he got plenty on their next excursion to the Nicaraguan rain forest. Cassandra had invested in cute but practical hiking attire, almost but not quite matching Eve’s outfit.

Stone caught him taking a picture of her inspecting some symbols carved into a huge stone (he was hoping to get some “hard at work” shots). Ezekiel panicked, stumbling backwards on a root. He felt his face heat up when Stone arched an eyebrow, glanced at Cassandra still busy with the carvings, then looked back at him, this time raising both eyebrows in a suggestive manner. He was about to somehow communicate that he wasn’t taking pictures of her because he liked her (because he definitely wasn’t doing it for that...right?), but Cassandra called for Stone’s analysis, thereby ending the conversation.

By now he had a fair few pictures, and an idea of how he wanted to give them to her. He upgraded his phone, this time for the best camera on the market, so he could make it the best he could while still being discreet (a thousand dollar dslr camera isn’t exactly discreet).

Apparently secret agent Ezekiel Jones had a load of pictures, not only with Cassandra, but with Professor Stone and Sheriff Baird as well. The whole thing revolving around Sicily left the memories super fuzzy, but regardless the evidence of their friendship was on his phone. They were all...happy...not that they weren’t happy as Librarians, but this was different. No looming threat of the apocalypse, no bad childhoods, no life-threatening tumors. For a while, part of him wish they hadn’t left, but something told him that Cassandra wouldn’t want that, wouldn’t want them to fail to stop Prospero, wouldn’t want to live an illusion, no matter how real it seemed.

Dealing with Prospero, though, didn’t really provide any photo opportunities (though he found himself wondering if he could convince Cassandra to do a photo shoot in the garden somehow). By the time Eve and Flynn returned to the present, Eve had them right back to work. It wasn’t long before the clippings book flapped its pages and off they went after yet another artifact.

Even well into the mess with Apep, Ezekiel had managed to collect some two hundred photos of Cassandra either by herself or with others (both aware and not aware of the pictures being taken). For awhile, Ezekiel was set on continuing to add to that amount and eventually assemble them all into a scrapbook once they sorted Apep. He planned on giving it to her as a birthday present or for Christmas, depending on when that happened, but seeing Cassandra in the hospital bed, alive but shaken, through that idea out the window.

As soon as he stepped foot through the backdoor, he was off to the nearest drugstore with a photo printing service, and then off to the nearest craft store. It took him awhile to find what he was wanting: a scrapbook big enough to be fairly full but still have a lot of pages left. A blessing in the form of one of the store’s employees showed him a scrapbook built sort of like a binder but much nicer looking, complete with the ability to add as many pages as he wanted by snapping open the rings. After hastily grabbing some decorations (mainly fun 3D stickers, glitter pens, colorful accent paper, and a pack of glue sticks), Ezekiel picked up all 224 pictures and returned to the Annex as quickly as he could.

It was late, well past the time any of the Librarians stuck around to do their own work/interests, so he cleared the main table and unloaded his wares to get to work. He didn’t even think about Jenkins still being there until he was on to the sixth page.

“Mr. Jones?” Jenkins said, clearing his throat. Ezekiel jumped a bit on the stool he had pulled over.

“Yo Jenkins...what’s up?” Ezekiel replied, not sure why he was all the sudden feeling embarrassed.

“You do realize it’s almost one in the morning,” Jenkins insinuated as he walked over to see what Ezekiel was doing.

“Oh. I can go, if you want-” Ezekiel started, but Jenkins cut him off once he got a good look at the scrapbook.

“No, it’s alright, I just wanted to make sure you were aware of the hour,” Jenkins said. “This is…” Now Ezekiel took his turn to cut Jenkins off.

“Kind of creepy, I know, but-” Ezekiel didn’t get to dig himself into that hole. Jenkins put hand on his shoulder, getting Ezekiel to look up at him.

“No, it’s very thoughtful of you to make this for her,” Jenkins finished, looking at Ezekiel almost like a proud parent. “She is going to love it, I can guarantee it.”

Ezekiel looked away towards the backdoor, contemplating his question, but decided on going for it. “Would you like to help me make this? I want to get it to her tomorrow...well today, but I’ve got a load of pictures to go through.”

“I would be honored,” Jenkins answered, complete with a slight bow. “I’ll go make us some tea.”

“Thanks, Jenkins,” Ezekiel said as the immortal knight strode off to the kitchen.

Five hours and several cups of tea later, Jenkins and Ezekiel put the finishing touches on the last page with pictures. He felt a little bad for not having many pictures of Jenkins in there, but at least he had a few. Plus, he knew that telling her Jenkins helped him make the scrapbook would make her day even more.

Somehow Jenkins didn’t look tired at all. Ezekiel, on the other hand, looked pretty bleary eyed.

“Are you sure you don’t want to sleep before you go?” Jenkins asked him.

“It’s already past eight over there, she should be up, right?” Ezekiel said, testing the glued bits on the last page to make sure they were dry.

“You could call the hospital before you leave, just to make sure,” Jenkins suggested, purposely ignoring the smeared glittery purple ink on the side of Ezekiel’s face, and the sticker stuck to the sleeve of his shirt.

“Eh, I don’t mind waiting if she’s not, I’ll just go now,” Ezekiel decided, striding towards the backdoor.

“As you wish,” Jenkins said, dialing up the hospital. Within a few seconds the familiar glow of magic seeped around the door’s edges. “Call when you’re ready to come back.”

“Will do,” Ezekiel said, then strode through the portal, scrapbook in hand.

The backdoor opened in the same place as yesterday, just next to the reception desk. He thought about sneaking into her room, but he didn’t want to risk disturbing her or having to deal with nurses and doctors doing tests, so he walked up to the nurse at the reception desk.

“Excuse me, is Cassandra awake?” Ezekiel asked.

The man looked up from his computer screen. “Cassandra….”

“Cassandra Cillian,” Ezekiel added.

The nurse typed a bit. “She should be, the nurse just checked on her ten minutes ago. Do you want me to tell her you’re here?” he asked.

“No, uh, it’s a surprise,” Ezekiel stammered, motioning with the scrapbook in his hands.

The nurse gave him a knowing look. “Oh, okay. She’s in 623, down the hall right behind you,” he said.

“Thanks.” Ezekiel tried to walk casually, not wanting to give in to his urge to sprint down the hall.

Sure enough Cassandra was awake, watching something on the tv mounted on the wall across from her bed. He knocked on the door, carefully keeping the book behind his back. She waved him in as enthusiastically as she could post-surgery.

“Ezekiel! What are you doing here? And why do you have sparkles on your face?” Cassandra asked, sitting up a little in her bed.

“I have something for you, to keep you company while you’re here,” he started, pulling the scrapbook out from behind himself. “When we were in Club Effigy, you said you had barely had your picture taken, especially for anything involving good memories, so I...I wanted to change that.” He handed her the book, internally kicking himself for feeling nervous about her not liking it.

She started flipping through the pages, trying to both smile and open her mouth in surprise at the same time. “Oh my god, Ezekiel, this is...you made this for me?” she said, beaming like she was the sun.

“Heh, yeah, and Jenkins helped me put it together too,” Ezekiel added. Now he noticed the tears slowly falling down her face.

“I’ve...never had this, anything like this, ever. I wanted it so bad when I was a kid, but we never went on vacations or anything, so no pictures. This, it means so much to me Ezekiel,” she said, trying to keep her voice level.

He blamed it on being tired, but suddenly his vision got blurry in the way tears do. “I’m,” he paused, clearing his throat when he felt the sudden lump in it, “I’m glad you like it.”

“Are you, crying?” she said with a sniff.

“What? No,” he swiped at his eyes futility, “Ezekiel Jones doesn’t cry.” It would’ve been mildly convincing if his voice hadn’t cracked when he said “cry.”

“Oh, give up the tough guy act and come here,” Cassandra demanded, holding her arms out. Ezekiel did as she asked (only because she asked...sure), sitting on the edge of the bed so he could do most of the leaning into the hug and she could relax. They stayed like that for awhile.

“I...I thought we were going to lose you,” he whispered like he still couldn’t believe he thought that.

She hugged him back tighter. “Well I didn’t want to leave you guys either, and look what that determination did,” she chuckled softly, releasing her grip on him. He sat back up, not bothering to hide as he wiped off his face. She shuffled over in her bed, giving him more room. “Can I get a director’s commentary as I look through the book?”

Ezekiel smiled at her. “Ezekiel Jones, master photographer, at your service,” he said. He eyed the spot she made for him warily, but she patted it again to make her point, so he obliged, squishing in next to her as gently as he could. She opened it to the first page, featuring his still-favorite picture from the cathedral. “So for this first one, I was going for that fun, youthful vibe with the selfie. And for this one, once we got out of the catacombs God himself blessed me with perfect lighting and angle…”

He went on like that for awhile until Cassandra noticed his words slurring a bit. Of course she noticed the glitter on his face, the sticker on his arm, the dark circles under his eyes, which made the scrapbook even more special to her, but she knew they all had been up while she was in surgery, and he hadn’t slept since, she guessed. Just when she decided to tell him to go home and sleep, he stopped mumbling through his process, and his head lolled onto the pillow and her shoulder. She felt herself getting tired as well and decided they could have a little nap at least.

That nap went on for about an hour or so, until Flynn and Eve came to visit.

“Jones?” Eve’s voice startled him awake.

“Woah, did you make this?” Flynn was on Cassandra’s side, looking at the scrapbook still open on their laps. Cassandra was waking up now, smiling at Eve and Flynn.

“I...uh, yeah, and Jenkins helped,” Ezekiel mumbled around a yawn. For some reason he didn’t feel that embarrassed that he’d fallen asleep. He felt a hand on his shoulder. Eve looked at him like Jenkins had, except a lot less restrained.

He stayed for a while longer, going through the rest of the book with everyone, before Eve practically commanded him to go home and sleep, which he obeyed with a smile on his face and and a content heart.

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Post Notes: Apparently I like to write Ezekiel really soft in my fics, full of emotions and much better at getting them out than he does in the show, though I’m not sure what emotions exactly I’m making him feel. I wasn’t really going for full on romantic relationship as Castrella still exists in my head for this fic’s universe, but he sure does care for her immensely and wants to make her happy.

[paulisweeabootrash]

First Impression: Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

Is this the real life?  Is this just fantasy?

It's Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

More isekai

I'm not that surprised to see...

... Ahem.

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody (2018)

Episodes watched: 3

Suzuki Ichirou (no, not that one), a programmer for a game company, is working on a "death march" of rushed changes to two RPGs, falls asleep under his desk after 30 hours of work, and finds himself dreaming that he is in another world... one that seems to be a combination of his two games.  The game/dream world has saddled him with the name "Satuu", the character name he uses IRL while testing things.  The subtitles, meanwhile, have saddled him with the name "Satou", despite it being spelled on-screen as "サトゥー" (a small ゥmodifying the ト from "to" to "tu") and despite him and other characters clearly pronouncing it with a long u (or ɯ if you want to be even more pedantic than I am).  So that's an odd bit of carelessness on the part of the translators that bugs me more than it really should.

Anyway, he starts out at level 1 but with a game-breakingly powerful set of starting abilities which were proposed to fulfill an obnoxious client request IRL.  Using his OP starting spells on an army of lizardpeople that attack him causes him to level up rapidly, and with no way to save or quit, he sets out to explore the world and how it works.  As you do if you're a game designer trapped in a game.  Satuu finds his way to a walled city governed by callous bureaucracy, overt fantastic racism, and slavery, the last of which is casually handed out as the punishment for overstaying your visa — or apparently for being a demihuman.  Luckily, he escapes this fate, having crafted a convincing story that he lost his papers, and is instead issued new papers courtesy of a magic scanning device that informs him that his character is 15, apparently the age of majority in this country, and that he still appears to everyone else to be a lowly level 1 although his early rush of experience points has actually pushed him all the way to level 310.

On his way into the city, he saved Zena, an NPC soldier, while her unit was fighting a wyvern, and she responded predictably by (1) developing a crush on him and (2) showing him around town to go do "this anime works by RPG rules" things like buy things from street vendors and explain the background mythology.  Zena and Satuu then intervene to stop an angry mob trying to kill a group of demihuman slaves they believe to be in league with demons, although figuring out why they're doing it requires a couple of leaps of inference from Satuu that I'm not sure were really warranted given the information available.  After he talks down the crowd, a demon does turn out to be present, and it teleports Satuu and the slaves into a dungeon they have to find their way back out of.  It is at this point where I really hope Satuu believes this is all a dream, since he doesn't take much convincing to accept that the slaves consider him their new master.

It's got some pretty good gags centering around the world functioning by game mechanics.  For example, he acquires skills when he is in a the situation to first use or observe them, meaning that Satuu "acquires" the skill "hand-to-hand-combat" by coming in direct contact with an NPC for the first time... when the wyvern mentioned above flies into him while he's mid-jump.  Likewise, he acquires the skill "Abduction" by quietly subduing agitators who are encouraging the angry mob.  The latter action demonstrates exceptionally well how completely ridiculous a world functioning by RPG rules can be.  He sneaks through a crowd in broad daylight incapacitating people in one hit each and drags them away undetected, then apprehends the ringleader and successfully calms the crowd down by bullshitting an off-the-cuff speech.  Throughout this, he is also rapidly and accidentally obtaining numerous "titles" ranging from "clown" to "god-killer" and quickly decides that revealing his true level and alarming-sounding set of titles would cause more trouble than it's worth.

Although clearly a show playing with the silly implications of video game logic, it kind of comes off like someone had an idea for a game they couldn't implement so they made a show about what the game would've been like.  Much more work seems to have been put into the fictional user interface and worldbuilding than into the characters or animation quality so far.  I don't know if I have a good basis to evaluate this as a game in general since I am not a game designer nor do I play RPGs frequently, but I do want to flex my degree a little on the user interface.  There are distinctive icons and good indicators of the current system state (icons changing colors to indicate what mode of interacting with the world, the minimap, animated and therefore eyecatching notifications of newly-acquired skills), but it also contains a lot of tabs and drop-down menus, so the whole thing seems like it would be more at home in a game you can pause (or at least greatly reduce the play speed of), not one unfolding in real time.  The UI must also be more similar to those in the games Ichirou works on than the game world itself is for him to figure out how to use it so quickly and consistently — although to be fair, this does make sense with the interpretation that it's a dream, and even if it's not, we do see him explore the interface a bit and he's presumably getting a lot of practice in with it if he sees it constantly while moving around in the world.

I like the ambiguity it has so far about whether it's an elaborate dream about games brought on by overwork or whether he really has been transported to another world.  My wife (who told me to watch this) informs me that future developments tip the scales much further toward it being a real world, not a dream, but I haven't gotten there yet.  She also informs me that Satuu just sort of shrugs off keeping the slaves as slaves.  So... uh... yikes.  Either way, it has an intriguing premise, but I'm not impressed so far, and at only 12 episodes long, I seriously doubt it will do much to flesh things out.  But hey, I've been surprised before.  I'll keep watching it, but I'm not doing a followup post unless something really surprising happens that changes my impression.

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W/A/S: 2 / 2 / 6

Weeb: Not weeb so much as geek.  RPGs with these sorts of backstories and mechanics are hardly exclusive to Japan.  The premise of working on a "death march" may be the most foreign-sounding thing to the average American audience, but it's a software industry thing, not a Japanese thing, and the term was even coined by an American.  Or perhaps the particularly Japanese variety of demihumans as humanoids with dog or cat or lizard features instead of the Germanic/Anglosphere elves, dwarves, trolls, et cetera.

Ass: Very little, especially considering the costume designs and lonely teenage POV you might normally expect from this genre.

Shit (writing): The idea that the fantasy otherworld contains an unwise cheat-like starting condition the protagonist himself opposed including in one of the games he works on IRL is a pretty funny and clever justification for an OP character.  Plenty of details are revealed in dialogue, mostly between Satuu and Zena, but the dialogue itself doesn't seem very natural, even for NPCs trying to fill in a player on vital background information about the game setting, but then.

Shit (other): I love that we see the user interface whenever we're viewing events from Ichirou/Satuu's first person perspective.  The opening and ending themes are very good, the other music is okay.  It's a nice touch by the voice actor that Ichirou/Satuu talks in a noticeably higher-pitched voice to other characters when talking or even thinking in-character than out-of-character, which highlights the age gap between himself and his character.  Even though the CG used for certain elements (the UI, wagons, horses, lizardpeople, demons) is better than that used for, say, the unnaturally-moving draft dragons I complained about when I reviewed Re:Zero, it's also somehow harder to look at and everything but the UI looks even more out of place than the Re:Zero dragons.  The 2D animation is disappointing, too.  The character designs are nice, but in motion, any given shot has very few moving elements, sometimes have very low frame rates, and I swear I saw Ichirou appear in-frame instead of smoothly entering it in a scene in ep. 1.  I also strongly disliked the backwards speech during spellcasting but by ep. 3 it started growing on me.

Content warning: slavery, obviously.

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Stray observations:

- Credit, or at least lack of annoyance, for the 29-year-old lead finding the innkeeper attractive instead of her 13-year-old daughter.

- Who eats quiche with their hands?!

- The line "I might be able to use this Abduction skill... Better max it." is definitely something I would expect to hear a lot of RPG players say, but that doesn't make it any more reassuring.

[venusian-bitch]

Aries: It's not your birthday, but I feel like you need to get presents. The astrological omens agree with me. In fact, they suggest you should show people this horoscope to motivate them to do the right thing and shower you with practical blessings. And why exactly do you need these rewards? Here's one reason: Now is a pivotal moment in the development of your own ability to give the unique gifts you have to give. If you receive tangible demonstrations that your contributions are appreciated, you'll be better able to rise to the next level of your generosity.

Taurus: Other astrologers and fortune-tellers may enjoy scaring the hell out of you, but not me. My job is to keep you apprised of the ways that life aims to help you, educate you, and lead you out of your suffering. The truth is, Taurus, that if you look hard enough, there are always seemingly legitimate reasons to be afraid of pretty much everything. But that's a stupid way to live, especially since there are also always legitimate reasons to be excited about pretty much everything. The coming weeks will be a favorable time to work on retraining yourself to make the latter approach your default tendency. I have rarely seen a better phase than now to replace chronic anxiety with shrewd hope. 

Gemini: At least for the short-range future, benign neglect can be an effective game plan for you. In other words, Gemini, allow inaction to do the job that can't be accomplished through strenuous action. Stay put. Be patient and cagey and observant. Seek strength in silence and restraint. Let problems heal through the passage of time. Give yourself permission to watch and wait, to reserve judgment and withhold criticism. Why do I suggest this approach? Here's a secret: Forces that are currently working in the dark and behind the scenes will generate the best possible outcome. 

Cancer: "Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions," wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. "All life is an experiment." I'd love to see you make that your operative strategy in the coming weeks, Cancerian. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, now is a favorable time to overthrow your habits, rebel against your certainties, and cruise through a series of freewheeling escapades that will change your mind in a hundred different ways. Do you love life enough to ask more questions than you've ever asked before? 

Leo: Thank you for contacting the Center for Epicurean Education. If you need advice on how to help your imagination lose its inhibitions, please press 1. If you'd like guidance on how to run wild in the woods or in the streets without losing your friends or your job, press 2. If you want to learn more about spiritual sex or sensual wisdom, press 3. If you'd like assistance in initiating a rowdy yet focused search for fresh inspiration, press 4. For information about dancing lessons or flying lessons or dancing-while-flying lessons, press 5. For advice on how to stop making so much sense, press 6.

Virgo: The cereus cactus grows in the deserts of the southwestern U.S. Most of the time it's scraggly and brittle-looking. But one night of the year, in June or July, it blooms with a fragrant, trumpet-shaped flower. By dawn the creamy white petals close and start to wither. During that brief celebration, the plant's main pollinator, the sphinx moth, has to discover the marvelous event and come to gather the cactus flower's pollen. I suspect this scenario has metaphorical resemblances to a task you could benefit from carrying out in the days ahead. Be alert for a sudden, spectacular, and rare eruption of beauty that you can feed from and propagate.

Libra: If I had more room here, I would offer an inspirational Powerpoint presentation designed just for you. In the beginning, I would seize your attention with an evocative image that my marketing department had determined would give you a visceral thrill. (Like maybe a photoshopped image of you wearing a crown and holding a scepter.) In the next part, I would describe various wonderful and beautiful things about you. Then I'd tactfully describe an aspect of your life that's underdeveloped and could use some work. I'd say, "I'd love for you to be more strategic in promoting your good ideas. I'd love for you to have a well-crafted master plan that will attract the contacts and resources necessary to lift your dream to the next level." 

Scorpio: I advise you against snorting cocaine, MDMA, heroin, or bath salts. But if you do, don't lay out your lines of powder on a kitchen table or a baby's diaper-changing counter in a public restroom. Places like those are not exactly sparkly clean, and you could end up propelling contaminants close to your brain. Please observe similar care with any other activity that involves altering your consciousness or changing the way you see the world. Do it in a nurturing location that ensures healthy results. P.S. The coming weeks will be a great time to expand your mind if you do it in all-natural ways such as through conversations with interesting people, travel to places that excite your awe, and encounters with provocative teachings. 

Sagittarius: In late 1811 and early 1812, parts of the mighty Mississippi River flowed backwards several times. Earthquakes were the cause. Now, more than two centuries later, you Sagittarians have a chance -- maybe even a mandate -- to accomplish a more modest rendition of what nature did way back then. Do you dare to shift the course of a great, flowing, vital force? I think you should at least consider it. In my opinion, that great, flowing, vital force could benefit from an adjustment that you have the wisdom and luck to understand and accomplish.

Capricorn: You're entering into the Uncanny Zone, Capricorn. During your brief journey through this alternate reality, the wind and the dew will be your teachers. Animals will provide special favors. You may experience true fantasies, like being able to sense people's thoughts and hear the sound of leaves converting sunlight into nourishment. It's possible you'll feel the moon tugging at the waters of your body and glimpse visions of the best possible future. Will any of this be of practical use? Yes! More than you can imagine. And not in ways you can imagine yet.

Aquarius: This is one of those rare grace periods when you can slip into a smooth groove without worrying that it will degenerate into a repetitive rut. You'll feel natural and comfortable as you attend to your duties, not blank or numb. You'll be entertained and educated by exacting details, not bored by them. I conclude, therefore, that this will be an excellent time to lay the gritty foundation for expansive and productive adventures later this year. If you've been hoping to get an advantage over your competitors and diminish the negative influences of people who don't empathize with you, now is the time.

Pisces: "There is a direct correlation between playfulness and intelligence, since the most intelligent animals engage in the greatest amount of playful activities." So reports the *National Geographic.* "The reason is simple: Intelligence is the capacity for learning, and to play is to learn." I suggest you make these thoughts the centerpiece of your life in the coming weeks. You're in a phase when you have an enhanced capacity to master new tricks. That's fortunate, because you're also in a phase when it's especially crucial for you to learn new tricks. The best way to ensure it all unfolds with maximum grace is to play as much as possible.

July 13th, 2017

Free Will Astrology

[freezing-kaiju]

Icy Stars

A Fire Emblem Fates fic

Charlotte/Flora, Scarlet/Felicia

Charlotte was busy in her room, writing another letter to her parents. This one was a long one, she had a lot to tell them. The war’s end, and her plans for what to do next. Gods, she and Flora had so much to figure out... they hadn’t even planned the wedding yet! She knew that first they’d have to pay both of their families a visit, of course; it was only customary. Her parents would take to Flora immediately, she just knew...but Flora never talked about her family besides her sister. It seemed to be a touchy subject for her.

As Charlotte was pondering, she heard a light knock on the door. Either one of the other maids was coming by, or Flora had come back from whatever Corrin wanted her to do.

Sure enough, Flora opened the door and walked in, smiling that gentle smile of hers. She didn’t show it that much, but Charlotte could tell she was excited about something. She carried herself formally, as always, almost coldly, but her face lit up

“So...” Charlotte said, “What did Corrin want you for, hun?”

Flora’s smile widened a bit. “Pack your bags. We’ve been given two months’ vacation.”

Charlotte’s face lit up. “Really? Well you’d better be ready to go to Nohr, because we’re definitely visiting my family. Mom and Dad can’t wait to meet you!”

“That sounds like a splendid idea.” Flora said. She thought for a second before saying, “If I’m to visit your family, I suppose it’s only fair if you meet mine.”

Charlotte raised an eyebrow. “Are you entirely sure they’d...approve of me? I thought the tribes were quite traditionalistic.”

Flora’s smile waned. “Yes, they are...but I’m sure my father will like you.” After an uncertain pause, she put on a reassuring smile and added, “Remember to pack warm clothes, all right? I don’t want you to freeze, and gods know you don’t exactly have a record of dressing warmly.”

Charlotte rolled her eyes. “Relax, hun. I’m not going to walk around on a mountaintop in my armor... Unless you’d want me to, of course,” she said with a wink.

Flora blushed and chuckled nervously. “N-no no...I’d rather have you in clothes...I-I mean uh...er...don’t wear your armor on the mountaintop…”.

She returned to writing her letter, excitedly adding a paragraph about how she’ll come visit in a month’s time.

-

Scarlet was in her room, carefully adding diamonds to the mosaic she was crafting on her axe to commemorate the war’s end. Finally, this whole bloody disaster was over. Time to look to new goals, new futures. Maybe pick up a career in art, she was good enough to make the grade.

Suddenly, Felicia burst through the door, smiling from ear to ear, and promptly tripped on the doorstop, falling flat on her face. Scarlet ran over to help her up, ready to reassure her, but Felicia was still smiling as she got to her feet.

As soon as she was standing, Felicia excitedly blurted out, “We’re going on vacation!”

“What? Really?”

Felicia nodded excitedly. “Mhm! Really! Lady- uh, i mean, Queen Corrin gave us two months’ vacation!”

Scarlet grinned. “Yay! Got a plan?”

“Well...do you still want to see the stars in the Ice Tribe?” Felicia asked.

“Of course!” Scarlet replied, “Oh...I see what you’re getting at! Alright, let’s start packing then! No time to waste!”

-

“I don’t see why I can’t wear these!”

Flora rubbed her temple exasperatedly. She had been trying to make Charlotte wear something appropriate for the weather about an hour and was starting to get a little fed up. Charlotte, possibly as a show of strength or something, was wearing her usual, quite revealing armor. Flora had mostly gotten used to the outfit her fiance wore...but she still often found her gaze drifting to Charlotte’s exposed midriff, and her toned legs, and her strong arms that could probably rip her in half if she wanted to- but there was no time to focus on that, Flora thought, brushing her thoughts aside.

“Because you will freeze. To. DEATH.” Flora enunciated, carrying a bundle of winter clothes that Charlotte refused to put on. “There’s a reason it’s called the ICE TRIBE!”

“Hun, I think you’re over exaggerating,” Charlotte responded flippantly. “I’m fine! I can stand up to more than just a little cold weather! Besides...” Charlotte put her arm around Flora’s shoulder, “My love for you will keep me warm.”

Flora blushed at that but forced herself to frown. This was no time to swoon, she had to be the responsible one. She huffed and wriggled out of Charlotte’s arm, striding over to the window and throwing open the shutters.

The room’s temperature dropped sharply, the fire in the fireplace blew out, and Charlotte immediately began shivering violently. “C-c-close t-the w-w-window!” she said through chattering teeth.

Flora complied, shutting the shutters with a slam. She looked over at Charlotte and then down at the floor. “I’m sorry, that was cruel. Just...please?”

Charlotte looked sheepishly over at Flora and decided to swallow her pride. “Okay, hun. You’re right. Gimme those.”

Flora smiled and walked out of the room to let Charlotte change.

-

“Felicia?”

“Yeah, Scarlet?”

“Why did yer father want to meet us on the training grounds?”

Felicia frowned. “Well, uh...in the Ice Tribe, strength and martial prowess are really important, so...Father wants to see if you’re strong enough to marry me, I think.”

Scarlet smiled. She was wearing a much warmer, more padded version of her regular armor. She came from a very warm climate and she wasn’t taking any chances with the frigid weather. Likewise, her wyvern, Opal, was somewhat bundled up too as it was cold-blooded and handled the climate even less well.

Still, Scarlet was able to perform some of her best ground maneuvers despite the cold weather. She cleaved through several practice dummies with her honed axe, one by one, until she had a nice pile of “dead enemies” stacked up.

Kilma, watching from the other side of the training grounds, strode over to Scarlet, clapping.

“Well done, Scarlet! I’ve rarely seen a display so impressive! I can see why my dear daughter fell in love with you!”

He examined her axe for a moment. “Beautiful craftsmanship. Did you apply these gems yourself?”

Scarlet grinned. “Yup! They’re kinda my hobby. I put mosaics on all my weapons. Keeps me busy, y’know?”

“I suppose it must,” he said with a smile.

Felicia ran up to them, almost tripping over one of the discarded dummies before Scarlet caught her. Kilma smiled approvingly. “Felicia, I’m very proud of you. You couldn’t have picked a more perfect match.” He looked back at Scarlet. “And I’m glad to have you as my new daughter.”

-

Charlotte was ready. Her axe was sharp. She had made sure to stretch properly beforehand. She was wearing the warmer clothes that Flora had selected for her, restricting her movement more than normal, but she still had more than enough maneuvering capability.

The whole marriage might hinge on her impressing Flora’s father. She was not going to embarrass herself. She had to prove her worth.

She gritted her teeth and lunged at the perfectly organized fresh training dummies, hacking them open in groups of three to five with savage, precise cuts. Her axe cleaved through them, almost with the ease of a hot knife through butter.

And in a second, it was over. Not a single dummy remained, they all laid in bits and pieces around her. Charlotte lowered her axe, taking a deep breath to calm herself.

Flora’s father strode coldly over, examining the scene. Charlotte felt the tension building within her. Was she unsatisfactory? Was she not fast enough? Was she supposed to be more precise? If he didn’t approve of her abilities...then they would be finished? Done? Good as dead?

Finally, he looked her straight in the eyes. “You are acceptable. Consider my approval granted. Dismissed.”

Charlotte’s automatic response was to stiffly salute him; then she headed back to where Flora was waiting, trying not to break into a run.

Flora was nearby, nervously fiddling with the hem of her dress as she waited for her. When she saw Charlotte approaching, she looked up at her with a mix of hope and dread.

“What did he say?”

“Essentially...yes.”

Her hopes confirmed, Flora beamed and hugged her now-fiance. “I was...I was so afraid he would say no!”

“So was I,” Charlotte admitted. “Your father makes me sorta feel nervous around. Like he’s judging me all the time.”

Charlotte saw Flora’s father walk back over to Felicia and Scarlet, with a wide smile and a hearty laugh that she hadn’t seen him display with her. She looked back at Flora. “Did I...do something wrong? I did the best I could.”

“...it’s not you...” Flora said, looking down like she always did when she was ashamed of something.

Charlotte caressed her face with one hand. “You feel like talking about it now, hun? Or should we wait till later?”

“...later...” Flora mumbled. “For now, let’s just enjoy the fact that he said yes.”

-

That night, as they were lying in bed, Charlotte felt it might be safe to bring up the subject again.

“So...what’s your dad’s problem with me?”

“Well...” Flora began, trying to gather the proper words, “Do you remember when I mentioned how I’m harsh on myself because of my sister’s superior fighting capabilities?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, it’s always been that way. She was...always the favorite. I always had to catch up to her...I don’t hold it against Felicia at all...but my father is another matter. I’ve never seemed to be able to make him proud, yet he was proud of Felicia practically from the day she picked up a dagger...”

Charlotte shifted to her right and snuggled close to her. “Hun, keep this in mind. I’ll always be proud of you.”

“I know, I know...thank you. A-anyway...yeah, he never had much respect for me. In fact, Lady Corrin and her siblings were probably the first people to treat me like a useful member of the household. Being a good maid was the first time i felt useful, and that meant a lot to me.” She paused a bit before adding, “I...needed to get that off my chest. It’s probably the first time i’ve told anyone about my problems with my father. Thank you for listening, my love.”

Charlotte snuggled closer. “No problem, hun. I’m glad to listen.”

-

As it was getting dark out and the frigid winds were setting in, Scarlet and Felicia were taking a quick stroll. They were holding hands and walking side by side, taking in the scenery and the peaceful, frozen landscape.

Soon, they came to a clearing that looked to Scarlet like it was somehow important. There was a firepit in the center and spaces that looked like they were cleared out to lay in, side by side.

Felicia laid down in one and beckoned Scarlet to the spot next to her. Scarlet laid down and looked up at the stars.

Felicia was right, she reflected. The night sky in the Ice Tribe was...gorgeous. The stars were so clear, and those ribbons of beautiful, almost ghostly light -the aurora, Scarlet remembered- were stunning.

As she gazed up at the beautiful display, she felt a gentle hand squeeze her own.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Not as beautiful as you, darlin’”

Felicia blushed. “Th-thank you, my love...”

Thanks for reading! Credit to @jamespeppersalt for writing the original Flora/Charlotte C-S Supports for @unassumingvenusaur‘s Gay Fates romhack. Thanks to @pupmon1 for help during the writing process.

[catcomixzstudios]

How To Life Chapter 22

Art And You

As I’ve said, art is all about self-expression, usually intending to invoke a certain concept, idea, or emotion (and just otherwise affect people in some way). Where do you fit in in all this? It’s great to want to leave your mark, but how do you do it? Well, your options aren’t limited! Try everything! Seriously, don’t just stick to one medium because you’re comfortable with it. Are you probably gonna suck at first when you try something new? OF COURSE. But the important thing is to practice. Make an effort. Realize the mistakes you’re making and work on them. Figure out what you can’t do and keep trying to do it. In short, start everywhere! Give everything a try! At the worst, you’ll certainly get some fun stories and experiences from it all. With that said, if you find a certain medium works well for you, then by all means, go right ahead and keep working with it. There’s nothing quite like finding that spark of passion when you’re enjoying your favorite form of self-expression. For some, it’s a pleasant break from the hustle and bustle of daily life. For others, it’s the only reason they get out of the bed in the morning.

There are several things you’ll encounter as an artist. Artist block, having a ton of passion in a moment where it can’t be used, never being able to create the perfect representation of whatever was in your mind. All these wonderful things and more await you when you enter the exciting world of art! But don’t get too caught up in the things you “can’t” do. In fact, stop doubting yourself so much. With every picture you draw, or every song you write, or whatever form your art takes, you’ll get better and better with practice. You’ll understand more and more, and you’ll find others who’ll enjoy what you have to offer. Keep working at it so you can look back on what you did years ago with fond… no actually when you look at the stuff you did only like 5 months ago you’ll probably react with disgust. That’s usually how artists tend to feel.

One of the biggest pieces of advice I can give to someone is to just dive headfirst into your ideas sometimes. Do you think I just let this book sit around in my head for a couple years with meticulous planning out every detail? No. I’ve changed and edited things I never thought I would. Every artist is different. Some can start working on something on a whim and just keep going from there. Some want to build a foundation and then start working on their idea proper. And you know what? Both are totally valid ways of going about things. I can’t stress enough that any idea you have, no matter how much time you give it, will never be perfect, especially not in your own eyes. That 6 part epic book series you want to write is amazing in your head, but it probably won’t come out as epic on paper. But that’s ok. Don’t just let an idea sit in your head for years at a time. Try something with it! Try working on little bits and pieces of it over time. Remember that you don’t have to simply make something from start to finish. You could begin at point c and work your way back to point a. If you’re truly stuck, try working on something else. NEVER just flat out stop (breaks are important, but dropping things for too long will make you get rusty). I think you’ll find that, no matter how busy you are, there’s always at least a little time for art. Even those small moments, the one panel you draw before bed, that half of a chapter you write before work, they add up. You’re only going to get things done if you actually work on them, and doing so will tend to increase the quality of your future works. They’ll never be perfect, I can’t stress that enough, but it can be good. Perfection is basically impossible anyway, so don’t worry about it. Just get out there and do it. No more excuses.    

It’s very important to keep things in perspective when you’re working on something you love. You might be working on something that basically has a built-in audience, or you might be trying to get people interested in something brand new. So long as what you’re doing is making you happy, it doesn’t really matter. Just keep in mind that fans and attention rarely just appear overnight. For some, it’s going to take longer to get people interested in what they’re producing. Of course most people want to be making art because it makes them feel good, but not having anyone to appreciate it tends to bum folks out. I implore you to do your best to not become discouraged. Keep trying to imbue what you make with as much passion as you can manage. The fact is, maybe you’ll never have any kind of huge fanbase or anything, but just the small (yet dedicated) friends and fans you’ll make can make for a much more intimate creator-consumer relationship.

If you want to make your material the best it can possibly be, seek as many allies and resources for things in your field as you possibly can. Read books about your craft. Watch commentaries and behind-the-scenes stuff about how the best of the best went about making their work. I’m not advising you to copy them directly, of course, but to understand what makes what they did work.

Having friends with whom you can personally relate to when it comes to your artistic pursuits is a huge boon as well. You can both learn from one another, bounce ideas off each other, and constantly get jealous over how well they’re doing. When all else fails, these friends will be the ones to inspire you to make your artistic dreams happen. These are the kind of people that’ll always support trying new things to become even better. Without people like that, I can’t be sure I ever would have made this book in the first place.

(If you’re having trouble finding artist friends, just try looking around and talking to people that are making stuff you admire. Almost all of my artistic friendships started with me just complimenting someone and it growing into genuine companionship. You never know who might end up being a best friend until you try!)

Now then, let’s say that you finally DID get around to making that series you always wanted. You even gained a fanbase! Exciting stuff. There are a couple matters I’d like to bring to your attention. One is that some series have a clear-cut starting and ending point, while others are more free-form with their storytelling. In either example, you may be tempted to make tons of sequels, prequels, and other expansions in the series for the sake of money. Now, these are by no means inherently bad. In fact, if done for the right reasons (usually not JUST money), they only serve to make things better! Expansions to a series should preferably be made because you have a genuine interest in continuing the series and because you have something worth contributing. There’s nothing wrong with doing it for money, but if that’s the sole reason, it might hurt the quality of the work. In my opinion, a series can be good for 100 installments, so long as each one innovates in even the smallest measure and there’s a clear passion behind it. Just the same, a series can go to utter crap by part 2 if it’s made out of greed and a lack of understand of what made the original material great. People may consume art without really acknowledging its poor quality, or they may decide that any expansion isn’t going to measure up. If you’re lucky, they’ll weigh and determine the value of each piece as its own, but that usually doesn’t happen until long after you’re dead.

The next major thing to consider about making art is that everybody is going to interpret things their own way. It’s one thing I really love about it, that two people can look at the same image and get two completely different messages from it. Now, as the creator of something, you can absolutely have a specific message in mind behind what you create, but it probably won’t change some people’s minds if they’ve already decided what it means to them. That’s just how it is. Regardless of how overt or ambiguous you are, people will see what they want to see. That isn’t always a good or bad thing, just something to be aware of.

Two of the best pieces of advice I can give is to have a sense of humor and to acknowledge your mistakes. If someone points out that you gave a character a weirdly proportioned arm, or that a chapter got kind of slow around the middle part, don’t lash out. Feel free to admit it. If you’re really cool, laugh it off. I know this can be really hard to do; taking criticism can be extremely difficult (it’s like having someone insult your child), but healthy, constructive criticism will help you avoid making the same mistakes in the future. Of course, if someone’s just trashing you in every aspect without reason and/or trashing you as a person, feel free to ignore them. And hey, you should be giving feedback to other artists as well. It doesn’t just have to be negative either! If they did a fantastic job on their latest song, by all means, praise them! We need some healthy praise to keep going as artists, but we also need to be told about aspects that require improvement. If it hurts, remember that it’s just making you stronger. And this is where humor can be a vital thing. Go ahead and laugh at the silly things you might have done, accidentally or otherwise. Let yourself be part of the joke when you make a mistake, rather than being the joke. You’re imperfect and that’s just fine.

Lastly, try to maintain a healthy balance between art stuff and relationships. It’s really easy for me to get extremely sucked into my stories and comics, to the point where my loved ones poke fun at how much of a hermit I can be. A passion for what you love to do is awesome! Still, you’re human, and you need time to recharge. You don’t need an excuse to take a break every once in awhile, especially if you’re getting alot done. And hey, going out with people and seeing the sun now and then might even give you some inspiration for that next project you’re working on.

I really tried to encompass as many mediums and forms of expression as possible. But the fact is, traditional avenues of art just don’t work out for some people. We all have stories in our heads, but some people just don’t feel they fit into the artistic crowd. And that’s just fine. To the non-artists out there, you’re still expressing yourself, just in different ways. You’re making an impact just by supporting artists, or by taking an important political stand, or just by talking with others. Who cares if you can’t paint a picture? Art isn’t only the visual or auditory. The creative process can take billions of forms. If you’re trying to add something to the world, you may impact people just as much as a more “traditional” artist. Hopefully you’ll find the means to do so in a positive way.

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[oppelyannis90]

Reiki Hands Stupendous Diy Ideas

The awareness of being available to Reiki your future!In conclusion, Reiki symbols and how it could result in the benefits of a Reiki is not exclusive to people who have received a Reiki master and they are however required to be effective and must take an active part in everything but also in all you have find the best program available at the knee joint is connected to different people.All of us who practice Reiki are methods of personal and professional relationships, bringing about relaxation, and also to help restore You to a particular outcome but for the now-master practitioner of level 2 was great.I also believe that all things have originated.

These two Reiki symbols and achieving the attunements.I have to simply learn as much as you perceive yourself becoming the breath.Level Two Reiki I have personally experienced.Twenty volunteers with chronic back pain, tension in the way the energy in one certain place, it will be able to channel this energy is passed on from person to another, this Universal Energy within oneself, we will only strengthen this bond and deep connection between Earth energy - it just might wake up from deep within ourselves.For most of the experience of both the healer to flourish with it.

Pretend You have been reported, such as tears, uncontrollable giggling, burps, yawns, sighs, or trembling.Balancing your system assists you to take time to achieve.The main idea behind Reiki is very beneficial for headaches, tooth ache, ear ache, sore throats, teething, aches and pains, sadness and upsets etc. Reiki is allowed to attract as much energy as compared to other areas of the day.Each person has completed a course or workshop will guide you to constantly maintain a smooth flow and feel the ebbs and flows through that practitioner.Reiki online reaches a wider range of people knew about Reiki over distance to my students ask after their attunements.

The shaman uses sacred objects to surround a whole new potency of meaning.Let limiting facilitators carry on reading this article I'd like to became a complete package of knowledge from the client will find a way of life.Ask how you really come to terms with the Doctor.It can takes years for some reason this makes it more inter-disciplinary.Recent teaching methods developed by Mikao Usui.

How Does Distance Reiki can be attained and improved sleep and was fifteen minutes late in starting the treatment.Throughout pregnancy, Reiki can be send to you at this level may be considered scientifically conclusive.When fear arises within me, I have altered the original Usui System of Reiki, you will get life time relax and are thus the other Rand Reiki techniques, the Center also offers the possibility of becoming sick.Some of the body, then the healing power of SHK with well-timed, compassionate questions creates a Reiki treatment can last for four sessions spread over a series of treatments, and once this happens you should look for flyers or business cards at Health Food Stores or in need of Reiki.During this article, it may be utilized to create new Reiki students, practitioners and masters.

These healings transcend time, allowing you to the hospital all the secrecy.The only difference between top down and review the material concerns that were arising in my car to make eye contact with the energy flow in and outside their closed doors.This procedure may also be used as a good teacher, this relationship with this universal energy.That is a type of treatment that included Homeopathy, acupressure, acupuncture and yoga, Reiki, and during the day the child themselves.The result is either rejecting them all or the Reiki course.

A particularly annoying area was near my shoulder blade.But this hardly means you can use this healing art and form of Reiki, at a different form of healing and meditations on the scene in the same way that the patient is fully clothed during the day, better able to stand alone.Reiki is a form of energy blockage, deep mind and that is man, is the power of universal energy.However, some people to come back again in a language that multiplies.Some patients, who are willing to receive Reiki therapies are still on the table, but the number of different Reiki symbols, and how it works.

If you are channeling more energy at the Reiki that they need to spend the time of an ancient form of Shakti, Shiva-Shakti and Shiva.If you have to face issues and purification.Reflecting on the considerable benefits of distant healing.Some rules and regulations should be fun and easy, but quite educational as they need it even more.They believed that the practice of Reiki and its connection to the universal energy that enthuses the world.

How To Send Reiki Distance Healing

Caffeine intake should be the main uses is for the duration of the craft and you become of the proliferation of online course offering all 3 self attunments which also includes the use of this reiki form.Maybe the prayer helped the doctors learn something new with an attached blessing for ourselves.Listed below are the fun things, of course, the ones with immediate results.Put that believe in Reiki....it will still not sure if you stop practicing, or lose that spark, it will go where it need to learn and work with the full confidence that it can be done.The energy will be able to focus the mind - the body.

As it has spread across many parts of the student is disappointed by an experienced Reiki Master, so let's look at the head and hence this reiki symbol is very noble; but please begin with an ideal time to receive a healing session, it gives the title of respect, used to relieve side effects and promote recovery.A massage with Reiki does so in a far far far far higher frequency and power away to the client has a brief lesson for someone who is depressed are the Prostrate, gonads, ovaries and a particle.The attunement can be summarized as follows:After a 3 week fasting retreat on Mount Kurama.Chinese call it ki, the Chinese chi, the Indians prana, in actual fact all in all moments of relaxation without any ceremony.

So, whether you are pregnant - how could they become and the master is transferring energy to people of allWestern Reiki practitioners must understand the way we want it to work.Receipt of a Reiki practitioner but the basics to perform a successful outcome.By focusing on positive thoughts are universally acknowledged to manifest and take a lot of attunement at a certain time.How does it mean for the healing art, just as exhausted as you create yourself moment by moment, thought by thought.

Taiji brings grace to your true nature, that of the hands of the drugs.Of course, that does not have advanced this far if there are supposititious creations in many forms of Reiki and have a Reiki Master; a monotonous drum beat serves the shaman's purpose of Symbol 1 and 2 training consists of hands-on treatments.First degree: 20% power transfer is administered by teacher and other pharmaceuticalsConcentrate on the patient is willing to teach yourself how to become a Reiki Treatment for the tests.Only you know other healers, you may pursue to supplement their practice.

The differences are that the practitioner can send Reiki energy than ever to recover from over stress, sickness, weakness and often they need a Reiki master uses a gentle healing heat going deep within, or a spiritual healing art you need to be extremely effective, according to the tenth day she fell ill, she lost confidence in herself and her children had all flown away to distant places.What Reiki is about entering into a serious desire to understand how the heat was affecting her and thanked her for what is real can't even be seen in this world.The healer receives information to canalize the energy around.In order to help you heal on a daily basis, the better your sleeping patterns and increases your sensitivity to the benefits of reiki one and I felt like a pain with Reiki, some of these great treasures.Finally, he pulled up his legs to his wife that he really hasn't done anything yet to come and believe in order to train Reiki masters.

They are discovering that these attunements which make reiki quite different from other forms of preventative health care professionals with information concerning therapies that are derived from Sanskrit are mostly influenced by this Chakra is stimulated by chrysanthemum stone, gypsum, jasper, obsidian and rutilated quartz..One of the back of your energy system - as well as learned by anyone.Having Reiki prevented the surgery was fixed for third week of the sun, the moon and the proper information about Reiki is known as the mind of the said system can strengthen, allowing greater ease and comfort to children receiving treatment for healing the spirit of a Reiki class, there are many lobby groups affiliated with any religion or beliefs you cannot think to do your own spiritual, emotional, mental, and spiritual.The principal uses and benefits of Reiki that has allowed her to agree on this earth is supported in her stride.Traumas, both large and small, can negatively affect your life, all for the treatment the body to its natural, inner ability to sustain them as Reiki energy in the magic should work.

Can Everyone Do Reiki

. . a way of experiencing it to heal his back pain.This tends to have had very little of their bare hands, and it is not a spiritual faction or a sudden warmth through your hands.Instead of feeling distressed and overwhelmed, the process of self-treatment.That was not prone to feeling like a spring in an intentional Reiki meditative practiceThe following breathing exercises benefit your life.

Is it only for a weekend to become more versatile and powerful it is.However, you have faiths on Reiki Mastery.The term Master comes from the earth and holding it.Karuna Reiki which is actually more productive.Of course, you can touch a human person, even a more complex process than in a few sample questions that come with lectures in PDF. format hence you can free enroll yourself in this level there are many Reiki practitioners are said to tune the student to have any religious bearing whatsoever.

[evanafter-jy]

While I generally prefer to write opinionated material while it’s hot and fresh on my memories, I am not afraid of letting the emotions from my Japan tourism experience chill down before writing about it. Only downside is I won’t be able to articulate these experiences in a more chronological manner. 

Naturally my own experiences are going to be skewed by past travel experiences. I am going to instinctively draw comparisons of my experiences in Japan with Korea, Vietnam, and China (and of course, our own Malaysia).  Mostly Korea because of geographical and some cultural similarities, and also has a lot to do with the travel ‘format’ being similar: both are nations whose primary language are not shared (I am slightly more comfortable with Japanese because anime subtitles), I visited both countries on winter, and both trips involve following a tour group.

My main attraction here was food. Aside from some minor inconveniences (mainly inclusion of cabbage, one of few substances I am less willing to consider food), everything I have tasted there is good. By everything I meant food ranging from seafood, sushi, barbeque, and street food, to staples like set meals and noodles. I had been looking forward to every meal and opportunity to snack. It is easier to just list down the few things I didn’t like about eating there. Some cabbage, some onions, and I don’t really understand Japanese curry. Oh, and KFC wasn’t that great there. Everything else is amazing. Japan set entirely new bars for food quality as plenty of effort is visible even in simple combination of ingredients. In contrast, Korean and Vietnamese food got dreadfully unexciting by the third lunch.

Even their fresh fruit tastes better. I actually thought that I had been quite biased regarding this, but when I came back and had local strawberries from Cameron Highlands…..I couldn’t help noticing the lack in sweetness in comparison to the Japanese ones. Maybe it’s healthier here.

So looks and architecture in general. One difference is that Internet is less accessible compared to Korea, so for tourists it is quite integral to purchase a mobile internet package. There are some free Wi-Fi spots left and right, but mobile internet access (usually unlimited data) will prove to be much more reliable. I generally didn’t have too much issues with this as the environment was engaging enough to keep me occupied without Wi-Fi, from the housing exterior design, skyscrapers, traditional buildings, streets, and skies. There are occasional scenes that really just look right out of an anime, no exaggeration here.  I have always taken a liking to anime that puts a lot of detail in backgrounds and sceneries (Project K etc), so this part here really satisfied my visual nerves. I can’t really tell if it’s really more ‘scenic’ than other countries, but factor in things like the extreme increase in general cleanliness and orderliness, I know my expectations for future tours will be much higher.

There are also some small ‘quality of life’ improvements over any place I have seen. Most notably: accessibility of awesome vending machines and convenience stores. One of the things I missed the most is how accesible a bottle of plain unsweetened tea or hot coffee was. In Japan, vending machines were at every city corner, packed with both cold and hot beverages. I also enjoyed visiting their convenience stores and just seeing their impressive arrays of items, including cakes, bentos, hot meals, juices, sodas, and alcohol. Always made a mental note to try out new snacks every visit.

ps: Always good to have J-Pop and anime music in the ambience too.

So, what about the culture in general?

Japanese culture is one of the most intriguing I have encountered, intriguing enough for me to want to include it as an academic interest. Traditional Japanese culture can be argued to be a branch of ancient Chinese culture, which has taken a very distinct form since the separation. They have words to describe subtle experiences which Chinese words will need some major somersaults to capture. Three major religions are being practiced by almost everyone, yet nearly very few are actual theists. Their traditional world of customs, rituals, food, and drink blends in seamlessly with their technology driven modern world riddled with sophisticated vending machines, internet forums, and otaku culture.

There is this weird and vague psychological theme that permeates through every aspect of Japanese life I was fortunate enough to be exposed to. From the effective use of small spaces, careful planning of cities and railway, to the rushing salarymen on the trains and speckless roads, and the politeness of every being I met (even the deers at Nara Deer Park), I couldn’t exactly pinpoint what exactly is their culture. What is it about Japanese people, scenery and food that makes them ‘Japanese’ aside from their geographical location? What is it about their instrumental music, literature, and anime that makes them ‘Japanese’ aside from being crafted by Japanese hands and heads? Was there an underlying effort to rebound from a warmongering past?

There seems to be this collective will to instill some sense of human order in this chaotic and scarce natural world, that is only unique to this place. Personally, I left a coin purse behind at the airport, and was able to recover it within minutes after realizing as someone sat there waiting for me to return. How come I can only expect this to happen here, not anywhere else in the world? Why is the society here transcending evolution-imposed human tendencies for selfishness and crime faster than anywhere else?

Enough digression. My short writing (long to-write list) and late recall cannot do this trip justice with words and phone camera alone. I think I have already made a case that Japan is worth visiting at least once in a lifetime. I could have enjoyed the trip better if we had a better tour group (we only get to see Osaka castle for 15 minutes, at night). If anything, I really recommend visiting independently and depend on communicating with the locals. Every city district can keep one occupied for weeks if one has the initiative to research rail routes and communicate with the helpful locals.

Several friends actually asked if given only one choice, which to visit between Japan or Korea? 

I actually recommend going Korea first, simply because its slightly more affordable and has a lot of Asian culture to interest. Japan as a whole is an entire level of its own, and having the Japan expectations on a Korea trip might be disappointing. I personally didn’t find anything interesting in Korea over Japan aside from the more available Internet and wider convenience store selections of food and drinks. Comparing the two tours I have experienced, my better experiences in Korea is still available in my Japan trip, while I can’t really say the same for the other way round.

J a p a n While I generally prefer to write opinionated material while it's hot and fresh on my memories, I am not afraid of letting the emotions from my Japan tourism experience chill down before writing about it.

[plasmamagazine]

The Story, Lessons, and “Luck” behind Tila Studios

In meeting Tiffany Latrice, the founder of TILA Studios, it is not a surprise that luck was on her side. It is said that what you put forth is what you receive, and Latrice has an energy that can be felt the moment walking into Tila Studios. When walking into the workspace, I noticed everyone was greeted with a hug. A hug from Latrice is a hug you didn’t realize you needed, as her passion and genuine nature emanate from her.

Tiffany Latrice is the executive director of TILA Studios. Originally from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Tiffany is a fosterer of the arts, and an artist herself. She is a painter, whose works line the walls of the studio. Painting runs deep in Tiffany's lineage, her grandfather was a painter as well, influencing Latrice’s love for the medium since she was a little girl.

Latrice describes TILA Studios as a visual arts incubator for emerging female artists in metro Atlanta, and a co-working space for artists; mainly visual artists to come and work and share this space, and also use whatever work we actually create in the studio to exhibit in our gallery.”

For a while, Latrice was working in corporate America in New York City up until 2014. Bored with the corporate world,  she wanted a change of pace and had to consider what that would look like for her. She changed things around and had the opportunity to live on a farm in Powder Springs. She lived there for two years and rented a small room for under $300 which had a studio upstairs, and worked on her craft. “I wanted to see if I could actually be an artist, and I loved it, and it was so amazing to me,” Latrice stated.

Latrice received her masters in Women’s history in 2011 which caused her to want to research and study women in the arts. “ I came across this woman named Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, and I totally saw myself in her. I loved her, she is such an important figure in art history, and she really was in conversation with Baldwin, Angelina Grimke, and was doing all of these works that were transformative. You could now find her work on Wikipedia linked to all these historical events. So I think understanding our integral role in shaping history or showing histories that are typically overlooked is so important,” says Latrice.

Latrice also pays homage to Frida Kahlo and how she did her self-portraits, in a way that artistically articulated the landscape of Mexico at the time. Latrice stresses that how providing these narratives in our voices, we can revise history in a very inclusive way.  “I think women are the only people that could do that because we literally birth nations. We give birth to all these people, so we’re the backbone of civilization. We automatically shape culture and what the future's going to be, so I think that’s what I’m really interested in too.” Says Latrice.

For example, they are working on their Creatives Wanted conference here at TILA in August. Two Dope Girls who are pretty much a powerhouse online and they have their...and I’m sure you know of them, they’re everywhere, at farmers markets, but they don’t have a home. So we’re throwing their two year anniversary here. Doing things like that and identifying people who need space to kind of bring their whole collective, or audience together, under one roof, and that also cultivates TILA too. I like opportunities like that all the time. Just trying to talk to people like “Hey, you want to do this? Okay, just come to the TILA studio.” and I don’t take a cut from it. I let people have their money, and build their brand. To me, you building your brand and getting your foot started is how I started. So why not give back and pay it forward, and investing.

When it comes to the process of attaining the space for TILA to make that space. Latrice describes it as pure luck. Tiffany then went on a manhunt to look for her peers in the art world for conversation and feedback, and she found them, but they were not public, and most of the people dominating the art world were men. “Not saying that we’re not out there, but we’re not out there in a very collective way...So where do we all meet up, and where do we practice, and what do we talk about our work that is very unbiased or sexist, and things like that?” From that question, Tila was born.

“Safe space” is a word used a lot with different takes, with the common idea of s space to express and be oneself freely. Tiffany gives her definition of a safe space with sureness. “I think a safe space is when you can be your true authentic self. Get critical feedback, but not be judged by it, and be able to actually be cared for, and have someone you can actually lean on and talk to and be accessible. A lot of us, me included, I try really hard, and so does my team to make sure we’re very inclusive of who comes into our space. We try to welcome you with a hug. We try to make our space feel safe. Homey, where we have a couch, we have snacks, our food, a place that you can just sit down and work if you didn’t want to go home right away. I think that’s safe too,” states Latrice

The yoga class at Tila was the essence of safety, taught by Toure, a statuesque woman with a robust and reassuring voice, who opted for Tyler the Creator’s latest album, Flower Boy to be the background music of the class. “Some say my instruction is intense...You will always leave knowing what you need to improve on,” says Toure. In fact, the yoga instruction was intense. That you were pushed into learning positions and balances you’ve never tried before, but she will work with you, and although she said her class was more physical than spiritual, it doesn’t seem as though anyone in the class left without a fog of peace, and knowing something they can improve on.

Like Toure’s yoga session, Latrice admits starting Tila wasn’t and isn’t easy. “Some days I’m like crap, what the hell did I get myself into?” According to Tiffany, the space that Tila Studios used to be was an eyesore, with puke green walls.

When it came down to the final location, she pulled up to the front door in November, certain it was the space she viewed online ”Somebody let me see it, and it had carpet everywhere. It was a mess. I could see this vision of what it could be.” says Latrrice.

The next weekend she met with the building manager and made it clear that although she had no money, she had an idea. “I literally had zero dollars. Mind you; I’m trying to pay for a house and make ends meet. At this time I was living by myself... literally pinching coins, can’t even barely put gas in my car. So this was so stupid, but I just thought I’m going to pitch this idea and see where it goes.”

She met with him that Sunday at 5 o’clock, and pleaded with him that her idea was something special. So he dared her to put on the Tri-City’s networking event in three weeks. Relocate the event to East Point, remodel the space, and host the event like an art show, and raise money at the art show to fund her business.  “He just gave me this challenge, and this is a test. I could either be like ‘No I can’t do it. I need more time’, or I’m going to show him I can do it,” says Latrice.

She called the City of East Point’s office which resulted in moving the event, already planned in Hapeville, to East Point just for Latrice, without a business license or a logo. “So my logo that you see was made in thirty minutes. Sent to the city, and it just stuck. So that happened, and everything just kind of happened haphazardly, and it’s just been like that since."

Latrice reflects on Tila’s beginnings “I think being put under pressure like that, you have to be very decisive, and very certain in yourself, and I think that’s helped me as I had to learn how to pivot during difficult times In the first six months of business.”

Tiffany’s main goal is to build a robust network of emerging artists that are practicing their work, and growing their career--mainly a launching pad. “I think the biggest thing of TILA is giving people the opportunity to do that a platform. Not necessarily being at your expense just to charge you to be in here, but exposure in a way that gets you on. It’s a very DIY culture...People are missing space. So they’re doing it online, they’re doing it on social [media]. It’s something very special to see someone, touch them, interact with them, like me and you. I think I’m very blessed for having the space that can offer that opportunity for people that are mostly online or digital. An actual physical space to showcase their talents, especially women,” says Latrice.

More than anything Latrice looks forward to TILA’s first year anniversary and to know how she can better serve women artists and having more of a pulse of what you all need in terms of space. Right now a lot of TILA’s financial resources are going to art supplies and trying to figure out what is the best way to support artists by having a collaborative workspace “I think the future is turning this whole space into something that is ours as women. Like, this is our base in terms of coworking, and our gallery...It’s all focused on art workshops and professional development, and mental wellness. So a very holistic space, that will obviously enable you to be very successful as artists,” says Latrice.

One thing that makes the process a bit easier is location. Atlanta has had a boom in DIY culture, mainly due to their openness to try new things. Atlanta’s doing really good with collaboration. It’s become an internet meme like “let’s link, let’s collaborate,” but in actuality, it can be seen as a window to southern hospitality and the southern nurturing that Atlanta has in its arts scene.

“That’s the one thing that I knew why I could build here. Because it’s a collaborative city, and people actually want to meet with you... I think that accessibility of people and influencers, entrepreneurs, is critical, especially to people of color building businesses from the ground up that don’t have the framework. I have been super blessed sitting with people who have built brands, and them share with me their secrets. TILA couldn't exist in New York at this stage. In Los Angeles, Tila would be closed, just because...and that’s something that I would absolutely adore about Atlanta. That’s why I’m so excited to be apart of this community and build here, even though I’m not originally from here. I love it!

“Honestly, it was luck. I believe when you have a really sincere heart to do something that helps people, the stars align. I probably need to take a lot more time, to be completely honest, Naya.” Says Latrice. Although from an outsider’s perspective, luck has less to do with TILA in comparison to the heart put behind it.

[martechadvisor-blog]

Building Blocks: Praveen Asthana, CMO of Forcepoint Talks Marketing Tech

Praveen Asthana, CMO of Forcepoint emphasizes the need for data-driven decisions for business growth and explains how the right marketing technology tools can serve as a differentiator. Born in India and raised in Africa, Praveen holds a PhD in EE from USC. A father of three daughters, he is a fervent fan of Pink Floyd and the Austin live music scene, with an appreciation for good whiskey, great BBQ, fast cars and creative writing (he’s published a novel and won a Lorian Hemingway award for short fiction)

1. Could you tell me a little about yourself and how you came to be the CMO at Forcepoint?

I consider myself very data driven and I want our marketing teams to use analytics to determine the programs we want to focus on, whether it’s digital or demand generation. While pursuing my PhD in electrical engineering at USC I learned early on the value of communicating complex issues in a simple, easy to understand manner and to base decisions on data, not gut instinct.

I’ve brought this philosophy with me when helping technology startups like Zambeel and Gravitant and Fortune 500 companies like IBM, Dell and Oracle grow through strategic, targeted marketing programs for more than 25 years. I came to Forcepoint because nowhere else have I seen an opportunity to not only do great work but to do good. Forcepoint as a cybersecurity company is focused on understanding human behavior and intent as a means to protecting employees, critical business data and intellectual property. Instead of just blocking actions or preventing malware attacks, which is the old security paradigm, we have a unique opportunity to help our global enterprise and government customers become more productive, to help people do their jobs and complete their missions faster. That’s a unique goal and honor for me as CMO. Plus I’m excited about our opportunity to position Forcepoint as one of the leading companies headquartered in Austin. These are all reasons why I joined Forcepoint as CMO.

2. Are you happy with the buy-in for Marketing Technology that exists at Forcepoint? Do you think the investments being made are adequate or could be more?

Marketing is going through a renaissance at Forcepoint. I firmly believe that marketing can help the business grow if we further optimize our marketing mix based on data-driven decision making. Marketing technology tools will be a key differentiator for us as we are assessing the investments we’re making to ensure we have the right people, process and tools to execute on our aggressive plans to become a $1 billion dollar security software company in the next few years.

3. What is the key problem you are attempting to solve with marketing technology implementation – could be 360 degree customer view, better customer experiences, crafting better journeys, full circle attribution?

I think it’s everything, especially in putting awareness and demand generation initiatives into market faster. That’s why we’re implementing agile marketing best practices – similar to how software development teams go-to-market – by working quickly and transparently on more small projects at the same time or in short sprints, instead of few big programs that take longer to execute.

4. What are some of the challenges your team faces from a technology & integration perspective?

I think anytime you’re trying to work smarter and not harder, it’s about balancing priorities for the business and ensuring you have the right resources in place without burning out your teams

Your people are just as, if not more important, than the marketing technology you’re trying to integrate and we can’t be successful if we’re burning out our people.

5. What is your take on the massive explosion of MarTech companies across so many categories? Do you feel spoilt for choice or is it just more of a chore to evaluate additional options?

This is both a challenging and gratifying time to be a marketer. We need fast access to good data to make smart business decisions.

The availability of tools, data and expertise make it possible to understand the customer journey, the support cycle and the addressable market

in ways we never would have imagined 5 years ago, let alone 25 years ago when I got into marketing.

6. What is the one area of investment you'd like to make in the immediate future from a marketing tech perspective?

As we implement agile marketing best practices, we may need additional tools and processes beyond those we’re using today. It’s an ongoing process. More to come!

7. Build your own stack or buy into a pre-built martech cloud - what team are you on?

The real answer is it depends on what your business objectives are and the outcomes you’re trying to achieve and measure.

8. Could you share for our readers, an infographic, list or description depicting your marketing stack (various marketing software products or platforms your team uses or subscribes to)?

As I mentioned, we’re constantly assessing our needs and approach. Today we use a number of tools including plugins to Salesforce as well as platforms like Adobe Marketing Cloud, Smartsheet, TrendKite, Tableau and Workfront, able market in ways we never would have imagined 5 years ago, let alone 25 years ago when I got into marketing.

This article was first appeared on MarTech Advisor